Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Physical strength; effective force; potency.
- noun Strength of kind, quality, or degree, in a disparaging sense; hence, extravagance; excess; grossness; repulsiveness: as, rankness of growth; the rankness of a poison, or of one's pride or pretensions.
- noun Insolence; presumption.
- noun Strength of growth; rapid or excessive increase; exuberance; extravagance; excess, as of plants, or of the wood of trees.
- noun Excessive fertility; exuberant productiveness, as of soil.
- noun Offensive or noisome smell or taste; repulsiveness to the senses.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The condition or quality of being rank.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The property of being
rank , of having arepulsive odor , of beingstinky ,foul ormalodorous .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the attribute of having a strong offensive smell
- noun the property of producing abundantly and sustaining vigorous and luxuriant growth
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Related: Wev McEwan on the Rank and File's rankness.
A party held together with spit, chewing gum, baling wire, and duct tape 2009
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It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy ….
Think Progress » Wall Street Republicans Form ‘Action Tank’ To Push Corporate Agenda 2010
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Related: Wev McEwan on the Rank and File's rankness.
Lance Mannion: 2009
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He curses the sunlight, the earth and all of its people, the fetid alcohol rankness of his own breath.
The Last of Boland Kilean Kennedy 2011
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It also spoke of her addiction, currently being fed; stale sweat and the rankness of bad, chemical-filled blood.
30 Days Of Night TIM LIBBON 2010
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It can be quite spicy, but there is a rankness to it I didn't quite like.
South Beach and beef jerky | Homesick Texan Homesick Texan 2008
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Indeed, he believed that in popularly elected governments, parties would display their "greatest rankness" and emerge as the "worst enemy" to the political system.
The Feuding Fathers Ron Chernow 2010
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It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
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And we should think nothing of informing them immediately that their rankness needs to be addressed.
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And while the noisome traveler was not a terrorist in the post-9/11 sense and didn't pose an immediate physical threat to the plane or its passengers directly, her rankness terrorized my nose and its owner.
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