rankness


Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Idioms, Encyclopedia.
Related to rankness: broke ranks

rank 1

 (răngk)
n.
1.
a. A relative position in a society.
b. An official position or grade: the rank of sergeant.
c. A relative position or degree of value in a graded group.
d. High or eminent station or position: persons of rank.
2. A row, line, series, or range.
3.
a. A line of soldiers, vehicles, or equipment standing side by side in close order.
b. ranks The armed forces.
c. ranks Personnel, especially enlisted military personnel.
4. ranks A body of people classed together; numbers: joined the ranks of the unemployed.
5. Games Any of the rows of squares running crosswise to the files on a playing board in chess or checkers.
v. ranked, rank·ing, ranks
v.tr.
1. To place in a row or rows.
2. To give a particular order or position to; classify.
3. To outrank or take precedence over.
v.intr.
1. To hold a particular rank: ranked first in the class.
2. To form or stand in a row or rows.
3. Slang
a. To complain.
b. To engage in carping criticism. Often used with on: Stop ranking on me all the time.
Idiom:
pull rank
To use one's superior rank to gain an advantage.

[Middle English, line, row, from Old French ranc, renc, of Germanic origin; see sker- in Indo-European roots.]

rank 2

 (răngk)
adj. rank·er, rank·est
1. Growing profusely or with excessive vigor: rank vegetation.
2. Yielding a profuse, often excessive crop; highly fertile: rank earth.
3. Strong and offensive in odor or flavor: rank gym clothes.
4. Absolute; complete: a rank amateur; rank treachery. See Synonyms at flagrant.

[Middle English ranc, from Old English, strong, overbearing; see reg- in Indo-European roots.]

rank′ly adv.
rank′ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.rankness - the property of producing abundantly and sustaining vigorous and luxuriant growth; "he praised the richness of the soil"; "weeds lovely in their rankness"
fruitfulness, fecundity - the quality of something that causes or assists healthy growth
2.rankness - the attribute of having a strong offensive smellrankness - the attribute of having a strong offensive smell
aroma, odor, olfactory property, odour, smell, scent - any property detected by the olfactory system
B.O., body odor, body odour - malodorousness resulting from a failure to bathe
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

rankness

noun
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
منْزِلَه، عُفونَه
zatuchlost
stankulækkerhed
avasság
stækur òefur
ağır/fena koku

rankness

[ˈræŋknɪs] N
1. (Bot) → exuberancia f
2. (= bad smell) → mal olor m
3. [of injustice] → enormidad f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

rankness

n
(of plants)Üppigkeit f; (of grass)Verwildertheit f; (of soil)Überwucherung f
(of smell)Übelkeit f; (of dustbin, drain)Gestank m, → Stinken nt; (of person)Derbheit f, → Vulgarität f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

rank2

(rӕŋk) adjective
1. complete; absolute. rank stupidity; The race was won by a rank outsider.
2. unpleasantly stale and strong. a rank smell of tobacco.
ˈrankness noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
At first the impression is an unpleasant one, but a couple of minutes will suffice to dissipate it, for the reason that EVERYTHING here smells--people's clothes, hands, and everything else--and one grows accustomed to the rankness. Canaries, however, soon die in this house.
It was two hours, owing to sundry wrong turnings, ere she found herself on a summit commanding the long-sought-for vale, the Valley of the Great Dairies, the valley in which milk and butter grew to rankness, and were produced more profusely, if less delicately, than at her home--the verdant plain so well watered by the river Var or Froom.
The very rankness of the smell of manure in the clear sweet air awoke something heady in his brain.
Good things lost amid a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far over-topped their neglected growth; yet, notwithstanding, evidence of a wealthy soil, that might yield luxuriant crops under other and favourable circumstances.
I allude only to the butterflies; for the moths, contrary to what might have been expected from the rankness of the vegetation, certainly appeared in much fewer numbers than in our own temperate regions.
In winter, the ice cover on the river prevented mixing and aeration of the water, increasing its rankness (Manitoban, 26 January 1934).