Meaning

2 senses
  1. (UK, historical, not comparable)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.

  2. (idiomatic, not comparable, uncommon)Terrible, awful; less than fourth-rate.

fifth-rate — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto