rank

• IPA^(key): /ɹæŋk/

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• Rhymes: -æŋk

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-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”).

rank (comparative ranker or more rank, superlative rankest or most rank)

1. Strong of its kind or in character; unmitigated; virulent; thorough; utter (used of negative things).

   rank treason

   rank nonsense

   • 2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 - 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎:

     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 Southgate's side.

2. Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.

   rank grass

   rank weeds

   • Bible, Genesis xli. 5

     And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.

   • 1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

     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.

3. Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
   • 1902, Joseph Conrad, chapter I, in Heart of Darkness:

     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 […]

4. Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.

   rank land

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Mortimer to this entry?)

5. Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
6. Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.

   Your gym clothes are rank, bro – when'd you last wash 'em?

   • (Can we date this quote?) Robert Boyle

     Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they feed.

7. Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).

   I am a rank amateur as a wordsmith.

   • 2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd”, in BBC:

     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.

8. (informal) Gross, disgusting.
9. (obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
10. (obsolete) Inflamed with venereal appetite.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

• (bad odor): stinky, smelly
  • See also: pong (UK)
• (complete): complete, utter

• ranken
• rankful

rank (comparative more rank, superlative most rank)

1. (obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iii:

     The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke, / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare [...].

   • Fairfax

     That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.

From Middle English rank (“line, row”), from Old French ranc, rang, reng (“line, row, rank”) (Modern French rang), from Frankish *hring (“ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“something bent or curved”).

Akin to Old High German (h)ring, Old Frisian hring, Old English hring, hrincg (“ring”) (Modern English ring), Old Norse hringr (“ring, circle, queue, sword; ship”). More at ring.

rank (countable and uncountable, plural ranks)

1. A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers [the corresponding term for the perpendicular columns in such a pattern is "file"].

   The front rank kneeled to reload while the second rank fired over their heads.

   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict‎:

     Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs […] .

2. (music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
3. One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, or quality

   Based on your test scores, you have a rank of 23.

   The fancy hotel was of the first rank.

4. The level of one's position in a class-based society
5. a hierarchical level in an organization such as the military

   Private First Class (PFC) is the lowest rank in the Marines.

   He rose up through the ranks of the company from mailroom clerk to CEO.

6. (taxonomy) a level in a scientific taxonomy system

   Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.

7. (linear algebra) Maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
8. (mathematics) The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.
9. (mathematics) The size of any basis of a given matroid.
10. (chess) one of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number). The analog vertical lines are the files.
11. (typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation.
    • 2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer‎:

      Earlier this month police in Norfolk were called after five hives thought to contain around 60,000 bees and £600 worth of honey were taken. Other known raids this year in Britain have included one in Doncaster in April. Suspicions among beekeepers that the culprits come from their own ranks were underlined by the fact that a bee smoker was left at the scene by someone who presumably knew that it could be used to calm the insects before taking them.

• break rank
• close ranks
• pull rank

rank (third-person singular simple present ranks, present participle ranking, simple past and past participle ranked)

1. To place abreast, or in a line.
2. To have a ranking.

   Their defense ranked third in the league.

3. To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
   • I. Watts

     Ranking all things under general and special heads.

   • Broome

     Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.

   • Dr. H. More

     Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft.

4. (US) To take rank of; to outrank.

• misrank
• outrank

• ARNK, Karn, karn, knar, kran, nark

• IPA^(key): /rɑŋk/
• Hyphenation: rank
• Rhymes: -ɑŋk

From Middle Dutch ranc, from Proto-Germanic *rankaz.[1]

rank (comparative ranker, superlative rankst)

1. slender, svelte

From Middle Dutch ranc, ranke, from Old Dutch *rank, from Frankish hranca.

rank f (plural ranken, diminutive rankje n)

1. tendril, a thin winding stem

• karn

From Middle Low German rank, ranc.

• IPA^(key): [ʁaŋk]

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rank (comparative ranker, superlative am ranksten)

1. (archaic, except in the phrase "rank und schlank") lissom

• rahn

rank

1. Imperative singular of ranken.

• rank in Duden online