second-rate
[sek-uh nd-reyt]
- of lesser or minor quality, importance, or the like: a second-rate poet.
- inferior; mediocre: a second-rate performance.
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Origin of second-rate
First recorded in 1660–70
Synonyms
See more synonyms for second-rate on Thesaurus.com2. middling, inadequate, undistinguished, pedestrian, commonplace.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for second-rate
Contemporary Examples
The place begins to feel like a second-rate Madame Tussauds.
At a certain point, the Christie staffers begin to sound like characters in a second-rate Tarantino script.
Or did the poor guy have to read a second-rate novel or a false-sounding biography in his last hours on earth?
I used to be obsessed with the second-rate films of Alfred Hitchcock.
When Smith phoned the American Embassy in Rome to ask for assistance, he says the couple was treated like second-rate citizens.
Abandoned Ship: New Book Details Honeymooners’ Costa Concordia NightmareBarbie Latza Nadeau
January 10, 2013
Historical Examples
They don't even know of the second-rate people or the third rate.
Changing WindsSt. John G. Ervine
It was a second-rate theatrical journal, still damp from the press.
The ChristianHall Caine
Otherwise, to what use could these second-rate horses be put?
It is strange how Dante has been left to second-rate interpreters!
Visions and RevisionsJohn Cowper Powys
Obviously, here in America we have a sympathetic tolerance for the "second-rate."
The Building of a BookVarious
second-rate
- not of the highest quality; mediocre
- second in importance, etc
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for second-rate
adj.
1660s, originally of ships; see rate (n.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper