third-rate

Alternative forms

• third rate

Adjective

third-rate (not comparable)

1. (UK, military, nautical, historical) Of a Royal Navy ship of the line in the Napoleonic Era: having 64–80 guns across two gun decks, a complement of 500–650, and weighing approximately 1,750 tons burthen.
2. (idiomatic) Poor, shoddy; less than second-rate.
   • 2022 December 14, Barry Doe, “NRT review meets Christmas deadlines”, in RAIL, number 972, page 40:

     I consider it to now be a third-rate service run without any excuses being offered.

Noun

third-rate (plural third-rates)

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