fifth-rate adjective 2noun 1forms 2 adjective2 •Terrible, awful; less than fourth-rate. •(UK, 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.[A] great and stout Fleet before the Texel (and not as much as one of our Fourth or Fifth Rate-Frigats could follow them)[.] — 1677 noun1 •(UK, historical) A fifth-rate warship. formsfifth rates · fifth-rates
