less than stellar

English

Adjective

less than stellar (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of less-than-stellar, especially in a predicative position as opposed to an attributive position.

   Friday night’s performance was less than stellar.

   • 1931, Music and Dance, volume 21, Melbourne, Vic.: Australian Musical News Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 27, column 2:

     Some years ago there were hundreds of musicians of ability, but of less stellar renown, who toured the country, giving performances at less than stellar fees.

   • 1970, Hardware Age, volume 205, New York, N.Y.: David Williams Co., →OCLC, page 8, column 1:

     Yet the economic seers are at it again, seemingly unabashed by their somewhat less than stellar performances in 1969.

   • 2012, Linda A. Jenkins, “What is Social Lending?”, in Creative Financing: How to Get a Small Business Loan without a Banker, Gold Alliance Group, →ISBN, page 1:

     Where a bank may automatically reject any borrower based on a bad credit score, this is not true for all social lending networks. You can still have a less than stellar score and obtain funding as long as you can convince a peer tha your project is worthy or your business model is strong.