From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpale imitation (of something)pale imitation (of something)something that is similar to, but not as good as, something else The cheese is a pale imitation of real Parmesan. → pale
Examples from the Corpus
pale imitation (of something)• It had been a pale imitation.• These, however, are but a pale imitation of the History file.• These programs are still only a pale imitation of the original human operators, however.• But this time round, they're pathetic, pale imitations of the planet destroyers that went before.• To its critics, it became a mild tabloid and a very pale imitation of what was originally intended. 