sixth-rate

Alternative forms

• sixth rate

Adjective

sixth-rate (not comparable)

1. (UK, military, nautical, historical) Of a Royal Navy warship in the Napoleonic Era: having 20–28 guns on one gun deck, a complement of 140–200, and weighing 340–550 tons burthen.
   • 2023, David Grann, chapter 1, in The Wager, Doubleday:

     The Navy classified warships by their number of cannons, and with twenty-eight, she was a sixth-rate–the lowest rank.

2. (idiomatic, uncommon) Terrible, awful; less than fifth-rate.

Noun

sixth-rate (plural sixth-rates)

1. (UK, military, nautical, historical) A sixth-rate warship.