poor relation
English
editNoun
editpoor relation (plural poor relations)
- Something neglected or seen as inferior.
- 1999, Stephen Wilks, Great Britain. Monopolies, Mergers Commission, In the public interest:
- Competition policy was the poor relation of industrial policy. By the 1990s the position was reversed. Industrial policy was passe, competition policy was central to the economic policy debate.
- 2007, Larry Devlin, Chief of station, Congo: a memoir of 1960-67, page 33:
- In the State Department, Africa was the poor relation, handled as a subsidiary of the Middle East Bureau.
- 2024 April 3, Howard Johnston, “TfL is overflowing with ideas... but is short of the capital”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 31:
- The Bakerloo Line, the poor relation of the London Underground, has become a huge talking point in terms of both its immediate and medium-term future.
Translations
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Further reading
edit- “poor relation”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- “poor relation” (US) / “poor relation” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
- “poor relation” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
- “poor relation”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.