adjective

• Of mediocre or inferior quality.

  ‘a second-rate theatre’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Now I don't have to drag myself to the second-rate theater where this film is playing in Madison.’
  • ‘That means challenging Scots to better themselves instead of meekly accepting shoddy and second-rate services.’
  • ‘I don't want to write anything shoddy or second-rate just because it will get on.’
  • ‘But in those second-rate towns with their third-rate lifestyles, punk had a localised life of its own.’
  • ‘It is common to blame this tell-all culture on people who go on trashy talk shows, or second-rate celebrities desperate for publicity.’
  • ‘The film does little to rise above its second-rate pedigree.’
  • ‘The alternative is that we will be left with universities run by second-rate academics and companies run by second-rate entrepreneurs.’
  • ‘And these are the cases that we're most concerned about, where the current system puts them as a second-rate case.’
  • ‘Couldn't they have picked a second-rate conservative historian or sociologist for the first prize?’
  • ‘It's all US style news, sport and second-rate American dramas.’
  • ‘Neocons tell you that every second-rate nation is ready for democracy, if only we can topple their dictators.’
  • ‘Even more horrifying was the realization that I could not dismiss The Passion as a second-rate film.’
  • ‘In addition, the mixing is second-rate and unharmonious in places.’
  • ‘The subliminal message was clear: see what you get from second-rate politicians, a second-rate parliament.’
  • ‘Much of it has little or no depth at all and more often than not resembles a sort of second-rate 1930s dance-music!’
  • ‘But it was such a second-rate piece of work, and induced such an amazing sense of tedium, that I am not even going to mention its name.’
  • ‘Quite a few were shocked to see Russia transformed into a second-rate country, treated unceremoniously by Western powers.’
  • ‘Despite being regarded as untouchably hip, the Sixties produced their fair share of second-rate songs, Neal admits.’
  • ‘Or are all those people in County Limerick to lose their homes and farms just to make way for a second-rate road?’
  • ‘Lundgren never rises above second-rate and this one is no exception.’

  Synonyms

  substandard, below standard, below par, bad, deficient, defective, faulty, imperfect, inferior, mediocre

  View synonyms