sixth-rate

adj, noun — 3 senses

sixth-rate

adj

1

Government, Military, Nautical, Politics, Transport, War UK, 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.

The Navy classified warships by their number of cannons, and with twenty-eight, she was a sixth-rate–the lowest rank.2023, David Grann, chapter 1, in The Wager, Doubleday:

2

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

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

sixth-rate

noun

1

Government, Military, Nautical, Politics, Transport, War UK, Historical A sixth-rate warship.

Related terms: frigate, post ship

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