fifth-rate
1
6.8
- adjective
- /ˈfɪfθ reɪt/
- Informal
:
de quinta categoría
- An appalling amount of the students' time is taken up with reading fifth-rate, grotesquely overpraised contemporary critics.
Examples
-
Rapprochement became "a fifth-rate consideration" once again.
Academic text (1994) -
Instead, all you can do is regurgitate fifth-rate, refried slogans.
Blog text (23) -
Or expressing useless fifth-rate opinions.
Fiction book (1998) -
Instead, he was choosing a fifth-rate institution on the verge of closing.
Fiction book (1999) -
Next thing I know, my hostel has the rep of a fifth-rate bordello.
Fiction book (1997) -
Squalid, fifth-rate port.
-
She was a fifth-rate actress, wrapped in the romantic cocoon of love.
Fiction book (1991) -
It's just that Rand is a fifth-rate thinker, which I suppose enables her fascism.
Blog text (31) -
What has been most unacceptable during the many harangues on both sides of the so-called Western canon debate is that so many of the combatants have ears of tin and are unable to distinguish between good writing and politically correct attitudes, as if a fifth-rate pamphlet and a great novel have more or less the same significance.
Academic text (1991) -
Many critics described the film as a fifth-rate production with poor acting.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Not good in quality or below the usual standard
27
4.4
Not as good as the usual or required quality
23
4.4
Not as good as the best, often cheap or simple
17
4.7
Of very low quality and not good enough
15
4.5
Not as good as people expect
11
4.4
Not very good and worth less than similar things
4
5.6
Less good than the best choice
1
6.6
Very poor quality and not good enough
Antonyms
How Bad
Surface Forms
Morphology
fifth-rate = fifth + rate (transparent) = fifth + rate
Clear compound of an ordinal and 'rate' following a productive pattern (e.g., first-rate, second-rate) where 'fifth' indicates a lower rank.
Etymology
The word fifth-rate comes from old systems that put things in order by quality, where the 'rate' meant 'rank' and first-rate meant 'the best' while 'fifth' was lower down. So fifth-rate came to mean something of low quality or poor standard.