Dried mushrooms are not like dried herbs, a pale substitute for the real thing.

In a sense, the United Nations court is a pale substitute for military action.

They can't seem to accept me as even a pale substitute.

The Beetle had stolen a cheap car, just to get us home, but it was a pale substitute.

They add that angling for unsophisticated hatchery salmon is a pale substitute for the real thing.

The inconstant devotion of my people is a pale substitute.

It's a very pale substitute.

To a listener in the throes of a Callas recording, all other sopranos can seem like pale substitutes.

"But it's a pale substitute for mixing things up."

The courts required us to justify our rules, not to gut them or replace them with pale substitutes.