Word.ws English Dictionary

poor relation

poor relation noun: something neglected or seen as inferior.

Noun

poor relation (plural poor relations)

  1. Something neglected or seen as inferior.
    • Because of our homosexuality the Black community casts us as outsiders. We are the poor relations, the proverbial black sheep, without a history, a literature, a religion, or a community1986, Joseph Beam, “Introduction”, in In The Life, page 17
    • Competition policy was the poor relation of industrial policy. By the 1990s the position was reversed. Industrial policy was passe, competition policy was central to the economic policy debate.1999, Stephen Wilks, Great Britain. Monopolies, Mergers Commission, In the public interest

Examples of poor relation in a sentence

  • In the State Department, Africa was the poor relation, handled as a subsidiary of the Middle East Bureau.2007, Larry Devlin, Chief of station, Congo: a memoir of 1960-67, page 33:
  • The Bakerloo Line, the poor relation of the London Underground, has become a huge talking point in terms of both its immediate and medium-term future.2024 April 3, Howard Johnston, “TfL is overflowing with ideas... but is short of the capital”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 31:

Synonyms of poor relation

Forms of poor relation

pluralpoor relations

Questions about poor relation

What does poor relation mean?
Poor relation means something neglected or seen as inferior.
How do you use poor relation in a sentence?
In the State Department, Africa was the poor relation, handled as a subsidiary of the Middle East Bureau.
What part of speech is poor relation?
Poor relation is a noun.
What is the plural of poor relation?
The plural of poor relation is poor relations.

Words near poor relation in the dictionary

  1. poor old
  2. poor power
  3. poor pussy
  4. poor rate
  5. poor rates
  6. poor relation
  7. poor relations
  8. poor relief
  9. poor show
  10. poor sport
  11. poor sports

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poor relation (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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