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second-rate

 
Dictionary: sec·ond-rate   (sĕk'ənd-rāt')
adj.
Of inferior or mediocre quality or value.

second-rateness sec'ond-rate'ness n.
second-rater sec'ond-rat'er n.

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WordNet: second-rate
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: moderate to inferior in quality
  Synonyms: mediocre, poor


Wikipedia: Second-rate
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In the British Royal Navy, a Second Rate was a ship of the line mounting 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks. They were essentially smaller and hence cheaper versions of the three-decker First Rates. Like the First Rates, they fought in the centre of the line of battle, and unlike the First rates, which were considered too valuable to risk in distant stations, the Second Rates often served overseas as flagships. They had a reputation for poor handling and slow sailing.

Rating

Typically displacing around 2000 tons and carrying a crew of 750, the Second Rates by the second half of the Eighteenth century carried 32-pounder guns on the gundeck, with 18-pounders instead of 24-pounders on the middle deck, and 12-pounders on the upper deck (rather than 18- or 24-pounders on First Rates), although there were exceptions to this. Both First and Second Rates carried lighter guns (and, after 1780, carronades) on their forecastles and quarterdecks.

The three-decker Second Rate was mainly a British type, and was not built by other European navies to any great degree. Apart from its unhandiness, in terms of sheer firepower it was matched or even over matched by the 80 and 74-gun two-decker Third-rates used by the French and Spanish navies instead. The additional deck did, however, give the second-rate an advantage in close combat, and it had the further tactical advantage of sometimes being mistaken by the enemy for a First Rate, which could possibly make enemy commanders reluctant to press an attack.

Term

The term second rate has since passed into general usage as an adjective used to mean of suboptimal quality, inferior to something that is first rate.

Bibliography


Translations: Second-rate
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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - andenklasses-, middelmådig, andenrangs-

Nederlands (Dutch)
tweederangs

Français (French)
adj. - de second ordre, de qualité inférieure

Deutsch (German)
adj. - zweitklassig

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - δεύτερης διαλογής

Italiano (Italian)
di seconda qualità

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - de segunda classe

Русский (Russian)
второсортный, второразрядный, посредственный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - de segunda categoría

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - andra klassens, sekunda, andrarangs-, medelmåttig

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
次等的, 二流的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 次等的, 二流的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 2류의, 보통의, ~만 못한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 二流の, 劣った, 平凡な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) رديء‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮בינוני, נחות‬


 
 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Second-rate" Read more
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