fourth-rate

See also: fourth rate

English

Alternative forms

• fourth rate

Adjective

fourth-rate (not comparable)

1. (UK, military, nautical, historical) Of a Royal Navy ship of the line in the Napoleonic Era: having 50–60 guns across two gun decks, a complement of 320–420, and weighing approximately 1,000 tons burthen.
2. (idiomatic, uncommon) Terrible, awful; less than third-rate.

See also

• fifth-rate
• first-rate
• second-rate
• sixth-rate
• third-rate

 

Noun

fourth-rate (plural fourth-rates)

1. (UK, military, nautical, historical) A fourth-rate ship of the line.

See also

• two-decker