fourth-rate

adj, noun — 3 senses

fourth-rate

adj

Government, Military, Nautical, Politics, Transport, War UK, Historical Of a Royal Navy ship of the line in the Napoleonic Era: having 50–60 guns across two gun decks, a complement of 320–420, and weighing approximately 1,000 tons burthen.

Idiomatic, Uncommon Terrible, awful; less than third-rate.

Related terms: fifth-rate, first-rate, second-rate, sixth-rate, third-rate

fourth-rate

noun

Government, Military, Nautical, Politics, Transport, War UK, Historical A fourth-rate ship of the line.

Related terms: two-decker

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.