gentleman's C

English

Noun

gentleman's C (plural gentleman's Cs or gentlemen's Cs)

1. An academic pass grade unfairly awarded to an otherwise failing student because of social advantages, such as a privileged family background.
   • 1992, Russell Freedman, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 20:

     As a scholar, he was content to squeak by, passing his courses with a "gentleman's C" and an occasional B.

   • 2007, Thomas F. Bayard, No Cats in Vietnam: The Memoir of a Straightleg Engineer, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 28:

     I always got the same grade: a C. It was not a "gentleman's C," it was just a C.