noun
definition
A British ship-of-the-line sail warship having 90 to 98 guns dispersed on three gundecks.
adjective
definition
Of mediocre quality; not first class.
Examples of second-rate in a Sentence
There are greyhounds also, but inferior in speed to second-rate English dogs.
Such a conditional and tentative policy, on the part of a second-rate power, in a period of universal tension and turmoil, was most difficult; but Griffenfeldt did not regard it as impossible.
Neither in materials nor in style does their architecture exceed what might reasonably be expected in a second-rate provincial town; and the same may be said in general of the other public buildings.
Of the numerous works of art discovered in the course of the excavations the statues and large works of sculpture, whether in marble or bronze, are inferior to those found at Herculaneum, but some of the bronze statuettes are of exquisite workmanship, while the profusion of ornamental works and objects in bronze and the elegance of their design, as well as the finished beauty of their execution, are such as to excite the utmost admiration - more especially when it is considered that these are the casual results of the examination of a second-rate provincial town, which had, further, been ransacked for valuables (as Herculaneum had not) after the eruption of 79.
It was absurd to expect foreign nations to deal with a second-rate man as commander-in-chief while Washington was in the field, and he seems to have had no further trouble of this kind.
When Sweden descended to her natural position as a second-rate power the French alliance became too costly a luxury.
Especially in his later plays a verse and a couplet will crash out with fulgurous brilliancy, and then be succeeded by pages of very second-rate declamation or argument.
Hugh Capet needed more than three years and the betrayal of his enemy into his hands before he could parry the attack of a quite second-rate adversary, Charles of Lorraine (990), the last descendant of Charlemagne.
Both are filled with second rate apparatchiks forever declaring their own patriotism, while keeping patriots out of office or out of print.
His position as a man of wealth might make his alliance of value, but as a lover he was very second-rate.
We should be first-rate women, not second-rate men ' .
When they are developed tomorrow, I will post them to this site, to replace the rather second-rate ones there at present.
But, and I think this is the point I've been struggling to grasp, to me it feels second-rate, somehow.
A new generation of boats is sailing the Red Sea and there are no excuses for second-rate service.
He saw France cut up, partitioned and reduced to the rank of a second-rate power, even to that of an oppressed nation.
In the recent conversions, he asks, Have we lost a single second-rate man even?
Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds.
In Frank on the Beach, she has him play sex-kitten, sprawled like a second-rate rent boy in the muddy surf at sunset.
We should be first-rate women, not second-rate men '.
But, and I think this is the point I 've been struggling to grasp, to me it feels second-rate, somehow.
Most of the rings in a retail store are inexpensive with poorly cut, mediocre diamonds and second rate workmanship.
This was Dean's week for second-rate motels, and they weren't getting better.
Herodotus, owing to his religious awe and dread of divulging sacred mysteries, is only a second-rate source.
You can be assured that you are giving a gift of good wine, not just a wine gift with some sub-par bottle of second-rate wine.
At first, ladies had to rely on second-rate or toy watches to get their "large" on, but well-revered manufacturers have jumped on board and now offer a tempting selection of oversized watches with slick features.