1. fifth rate - Noun
2. fifth rate - Adjective
fifth rate (not comparable)
Alternative spelling of fifth-rate
fifth rate (plural fifth rates)
Alternative spelling of fifth-rate
(UK, military, nautical, historical) Of a Royal Navy warship in the Napoleonic Era: having 32–44 guns across one or two gun decks, a complement of 200–300, and weighing 700–1,450 tons burthen.
(idiomatic, uncommon) Terrible, awful; less than fourth-rate.
fifth-rate (plural fifth-rates)
(UK, military, nautical, historical) A fifth-rate warship.
fifth-rate
Traditions that were once vital, sincere and splendid and which are now merely empty formulae, [nor to imitate fifth rate western art slavishly] break away from both and produce something vital, connected with the soil, something essentially Indian. Amrita Sher-Gil