Yet another scale is shoddy (5-4)
I believe the answer is:
third-rate
'shoddy' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
I don't understand the rest of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for third-rate that I've seen before include "Very inferior in numerical way" , "Very inferior in quality, using ordinal number" , "Very inferior in quality - count down" , "Very inferior in quality in numeric description" , "Of very poor quality" .)