rank
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹæŋk/
rhymes: -æŋk
Forms: form: ranker
form: more rank
form: rankest
form: most rank
form: ranck
Etymology: From Middle English rank (“strong, proud”), from Old English ranc (“proud, haughty, arrogant, insolent, forward, overbearing, showy, ostentatious, splendid, bold, valiant, noble, brave, strong, full-grown, mature”), from Proto-West Germanic *rank, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“straight, direct”). Cognate with Dutch rank (“slender, slim”), Low German rank (“slender, projecting, lank”), Danish rank (“straight, erect, slender”), Swedish rank (“slender, shaky, wonky”), Icelandic rakkur (“straight, slender, bold, valiant”).
Senses: examples: text: rank grass
text: rank weeds
text: And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 41:5:
text: The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.
ref: 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:
glosses: Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
examples: text: rank land
text: fow Sprat or Fullum Barley, which is the best for rank Land, because it doth not run ſo much to Straw
ref: 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
glosses: Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
examples: text: The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver—over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple […]
ref: 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:
glosses: Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
examples: text: Your gym clothes are rank, bro – when'd you last wash 'em?
text: Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they ordinarily feed.
ref: 1661, Robert Boyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.
synonyms: word: stinky
word: smelly
word: pongy
glosses: Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
Gross, disgusting, foul.
examples: text: If Safford happens to be driving a "rank" horse, one that insists on getting away fast, he goes along with the rest, […]
ref: 1949, The New Yorker (volume 25, part 3, page 46)
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
glosses: Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
Headstrong; difficult to control.
examples: text: rank treason
text: rank nonsense
text: I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.
text: England's domination of the first half was almost total, but they somehow contrived to allow Tunisia to raise themselves off the floor by virtue of rank carelessness from [Gareth] Southgate's side.
ref: 2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 21 Apr 2019:
text: Chelsea remain rank outsiders to retain their crown and they still lie 12 points adrift of United, but Ancelotti will regard this as a performance that supports his insistence that they can still have a say when the major prizes are handed out this season.
ref: 2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd”, in BBC:
synonyms: thorough
virulent
glosses: complete, unmitigated, utter.
examples: text: the ewes being rank,
In end of autumn turned to the rams
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
glosses: lustful; lascivious
Derived terms: outrank
ranken
rankful