[syn: absolute, downright, out-and-out(a), rank(a), right-down, sheer(a)]
5. growing profusely;
- Example: "rank jungle vegetation"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Rank \Rank\, adv.
Rankly; stoutly; violently. [Obs.]
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That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.
--Fairfax.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Rank \Rank\, n. [OE. renk, reng, OF. renc, F. rang, fr. OHG.
hring a circle, a circular row, G. ring. See Ring, and cf.
Range, n. & v.]
1. A row or line; a range; an order; a tier; as, a rank of
osiers.
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Many a mountain nigh
Rising in lofty ranks, and loftier still. --Byron.
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2. (Mil.) A line of soldiers ranged side by side; -- opposed
to file. See 1st File, 1
(a) .
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Fierce, fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war.
--Shak.
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3. Grade of official standing, as in the army, navy, or
nobility; as, the rank of general; the rank of admiral.
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4. An aggregate of individuals classed together; a permanent
social class; an order; a division; as, ranks and orders
of men; the highest and the lowest ranks of men, or of
other intelligent beings.
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5. Degree of dignity, eminence, or excellence; position in
civil or social life; station; degree; grade; as, a writer
of the first rank; a lawyer of high rank.
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These all are virtues of a meaner rank. --Addison.
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6. Elevated grade or standing; high degree; high social
position; distinction; eminence; as, a man of rank.
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Rank and file.
(a) (Mil.) The whole body of common soldiers, including
also corporals. In a more extended sense, it includes
sergeants also, excepting the noncommissioned staff.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Rank \Rank\ (r[a^][ng]k), a. [Compar. Ranker
(r[a^][ng]k"[~e]r); superl. Rankest.] [AS. ranc strong,
proud; cf. D. rank slender, Dan. rank upright, erect, Prov.
G. rank slender, Icel. rakkr slender, bold. The meaning seems
to have been influenced by L. rancidus, E. rancid.]
1. Luxuriant in growth; of vigorous growth; exuberant; grown
to immoderate height; as, rank grass; rank weeds.
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And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one
stalk, rank and good. --Gen. xli. 5.
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2. Raised to a high degree; violent; extreme; gross; utter;
as, rank heresy. "Rank nonsense." --Hare. "I do forgive
thy rankest fault." --Shak.
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3. Causing vigorous growth; producing luxuriantly; very rich
and fertile; as, rank land. --Mortimer.
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4. Strong-scented; rancid; musty; as, oil of a rank smell;
rank-smelling rue. --Spenser.
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5. Strong to the taste. "Divers sea fowls taste rank of the
fish on which they feed." --Boyle.
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6. Inflamed with venereal appetite. [Obs.] --Shak.
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Rank modus (Law), an excessive and unreasonable modus. See
Modus, 3.
To set (the iron of a plane, etc.) rank, to set so as to
take off a thick shaving. --Moxon.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Rank \Rank\, v. i.
1. To be ranged; to be set or disposed, as in a particular
degree, class, order, or division.
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Let that one article rank with the rest. --Shak.
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2. To have a certain grade or degree of elevation in the
orders of civil or military life; to have a certain degree
of esteem or consideration; as, he ranks with the first
class of poets; he ranks high in public estimation.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Rank \Rank\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ranked (r[a^][ng]kt); p. pr.
& vb. n. Ranking.]
1. To place abreast, or in a line.
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2. To range in a particular class, order, or division; to
class; also, to dispose methodically; to place in suitable
classes or order; to classify.
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Ranking all things under general and special heads.
--I. Watts.
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Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.
--Broome.
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Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft. --Dr.
H. More.
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3. To take rank of; to outrank. [U.S.]
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
rank
adj 1: very fertile; producing profuse growth; "rank earth"
2: very offensive in smell or taste; "a rank cigar"
3: conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible; "a
crying shame"; "an egregious lie"; "flagrant violation of
human rights"; "a glaring error"; "gross ineptitude"; "gross
injustice"; "rank treachery" [syn: crying(a), egregious,
flagrant, glaring, gross, rank]
4: complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes
used informally as intensifiers; "absolute freedom"; "an
absolute dimwit"; "a downright lie"; "out-and-out mayhem";
"an out-and-out lie"; "a rank outsider"; "many right-down
vices"; "got the job through sheer persistence"; "sheer
stupidity" [syn: absolute, downright, out-and-out(a),
rank(a), right-down, sheer(a)]
5: growing profusely; "rank jungle vegetation"
n 1: a row or line of people (especially soldiers or police)
standing abreast of one another; "the entrance was guarded
by ranks of policemen"
2: relative status; "his salary was determined by his rank and
seniority"
3: the ordinary members of an organization (such as the enlisted
soldiers of an army); "the strike was supported by the union
rank and file"; "he rose from the ranks to become a colonel"
[syn: rank and file, rank]
4: position in a social hierarchy; "the British are more aware
of social status than Americans are" [syn: social station,
social status, social rank, rank]
5: the body of members of an organization or group; "they polled
their membership"; "they found dissension in their own
ranks"; "he joined the ranks of the unemployed" [syn:
membership, rank]
v 1: take or have a position relative to others; "This painting
ranks among the best in the Western World"
2: assign a rank or rating to; "how would you rank these
students?"; "The restaurant is rated highly in the food
guide" [syn: rate, rank, range, order, grade,
place]
3: take precedence or surpass others in rank [syn: rank,
outrank]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
741 Moby Thesaurus words for "rank":
English horn, IC analysis, Indian file, KP, abject, abominable,
absolute, abundant, adjust, align, alphabetize, analyze, ancestry,
antecede, appositive, appraise, appreciate, aristocracy,
aristocraticalness, army, army group, arrange, arrant, array,
articulation, ascendancy, assess, assort, atrocious, attribute,
attributive, authority, awful, bad, bad-smelling, bank, barfy,
base, bassoon, battalion, battery, battle group, be distinguished,
be regarded, be thought of, bearings, beastly, beggarly,
beneath contempt, birth, black, blamable, blameworthy, blatant,
block flute, blood, blown, blue, blue blood, bolt, bombard,
bourdon, bracket, brackish, branch, break down, brigade, broad,
broken, brutal, bulk, bumpy, buzz, cachet, cadre, call, capacity,
capital, case, caste, catalog, categorize, category, catena,
catenation, cello, chain, chain reaction, chaining, character,
cheesy, choppy, circumstance, circumstances, clan, claribel,
clarinet, clarion, class, classical, classify, cloying, coarse,
coarse-grained, codify, cohort, collate, column, combat command,
combat team, come before, come first, company, complement,
complete, concatenation, concert flute, condition, connection,
consecution, consequence, conspicuous, construction modifier,
consummate, contemptible, continuity, continuum, cool off, cornet,
cornopean, corps, corrugated, corrupt, count, course, crappy,
crass, criminal, cromorna, cross-grained, crummy, cutting, cycle,
cymbel, damnable, dank, dark, debased, decided, deep structure,
definitive, degraded, degree, dense, deplorable, deploy, depraved,
descent, despicable, detachment, detail, detestable, diapason,
digest, dignity, dire, direct object, dirty, disagreeable,
disgraceful, disgusting, dispose, distinction, divide, division,
downright, dreadful, drone, dulciana, earthy, echelon, egregious,
eminence, employees, endless belt, endless round, enlarge,
enormous, estate, estimate, evaluate, evil, execrable, exuberant,
face, fecal, feculent, fertile, fetid, field army, field train,
figure, file, filiation, filler, filthy, fix, flagitious, flagrant,
flourishing, flute stop, flyblown, flying column, footing, form,
form an estimate, form-function unit, formation, foul,
foundation stop, fourniture, frank, front, frowsty, frowy, frowzy,
fructuous, fulsome, function, funky, fusty, gamba, gamut, gamy,
garrison, gauge, gedeckt, gemshorn, genteelness, gentility,
give an appreciation, glaring, gloppy, go ahead of, go before,
go in advance, gradate, gradation, grade, graduate, grainy,
granulated, grave, graveolent, greatness, grievous, gross, group,
grouping, grown, guess, gunky, gutter, harmonic flute, harmonize,
hateful, have priority, head, head the table, head up, heading,
heavy, heinous, hierarchize, hierarchy, high, high place,
high-tasted, homespun, honorable descent, horrible, horrid,
horripilant, hum, humid, hybrid stop, icky, ill-smelling,
immediate constituent analysis, immodest, impenetrable, importance,
improper, indecent, indecorous, index, indirect object, inequal,
infamous, influence, influentialness, iniquitous, intolerable,
irregular, jam, jolty, jungled, jungly, kick off, kin,
kitchen police, knavish, koppel flute, kudos, label, lamentable,
larigot, lavish, lay out, lead, lead off, legion, level, levels,
line, line up, lineage, linsey-woolsey, list, little, loathsome,
location, lot, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, lurid, lush,
luxuriant, maggoty, make an estimation, malodorous, mangy, maniple,
mark, marshal, match, mawkish, mean, measly, measure, melodia,
mephitic, methodize, miasmal, miasmic, mildewed, mildewy,
miserable, mixture, modality, mode, modifier, moldy, moment,
monotone, monstrous, mucky, musty, mutation stop, nasty, naughty,
nauseant, nauseating, nauseous, nazard, nefarious, nexus, nidorous,
nobility, noble birth, nobleness, noisome, normalize, noticeable,
notorious, noxious, object, obnoxious, oboe, obscene, octave,
odious, odorous, off, off color, offensive, olid, order, ordurous,
organ stop, organization, organize, out-and-out, outfit,
outrageous, outrank, outright, outstanding, overgrown, overripe,
overrun, pacify, paltry, pass, peccant, peerage, pendulum, perfect,
periodicity, petty, phalanx, phrase structure, piccolo, pickle,
pigeonhole, pimply, pitiable, pitiful, pitted, place, platoon,
play first fiddle, plein jeu, plenum, plight, pocky, poisonous,
poky, poor, pornographic, posaune, position, positive, posse,
posture, potholed, powder train, power, power structure, precede,
precedence, precious, predicament, predicate, pressure, prestige,
principal, priority, prize, productive, profound, profuse,
progression, prolific, prominence, pronounced, proper, proportion,
puky, pungent, putrid, qualifier, quality, queue, quiet, quint,
quintaten, race, rampant, rancid, range, rank first, rank out,
ranket, ranks, rate, rating, raunchy, raw, reasty, reasy,
rebarbative, reckon, recurrence, reechy, reed stop, reeking, reeky,
regiment, register, regrettable, regular, regularize, regulate,
reprehensible, reprobate, reptilian, repulsive, reticulation,
riddle, riotous, ripply, risque, rohr flute, rotation, rotten,
rough, rough-cast, rough-grained, rough-hewn, round, routine,
routinize, row, royalty, rubric, ruffled, run, rutted, rutty, sad,
scabby, scale, scandalous, scatological, schlock, screen, scrubby,
scruffy, scummy, scurfy, scurvy, section, seniority, separate,
sept, sequence, serial order, series, sesquialtera, set, set up,
shabby, shagged, shaggy, shallow structure, shameful, shameless,
shattering, shawm, sheer, shitty, shocking, shoddy, sickening,
sieve, sift, sinful, single file, situation, size, slabby, slimy,
sloppy, sloshy, slot, slot and filler, sludgy, slushy, small,
smellful, smelling, smelly, smutty, soldiers, sordid, sort,
sort out, sour, spectrum, sphere, spitz flute, spoiled, sposhy,
spot, squad, squadron, squalid, staff, stage, stale, stand,
stand first, standardize, standing, star, stark, stark-staring,
state, station, stature, status, stenchy, stinking, stop,
stopped diapason, stopped flute, strain, strata, stratum, string,
string diapason, string out, string stop, strong, strong-flavored,
strong-tasting, structure, stuffy, subdivide, subdivision,
subgroup, subject, suborder, subordinate, subordination,
succession, sulfurous, superabundant, superiority, superlative,
surface structure, surpassing, swath, syntactic analysis,
syntactic structure, syntactics, syntax, systematize, tabulate,
tactical unit, tagmeme, tainted, take precedence, task force,
terrible, textured, the veriest, thick, thorough, thoroughgoing,
thread, tier, tierce, title, too bad, total, train, tranquilize,
tremolo, trombone, troop, trumpet, turned, twelfth, type,
unalloyed, unbearable, unclean, unconscionable, uncouth,
unda maris, undeniable, underlying structure, undiluted,
unequivocal, uneven, unforgivable, unit, unkempt, unlevel,
unmentionable, unmitigated, unpardonable, unpolished, unqualified,
unrefined, unrelieved, unsmooth, unspeakable, unspoiled, ununiform,
unweeded, unworthy, usher in, utter, valuate, value, vibrato,
vicious, vile, villainous, viola, voix celeste, vomity,
vox angelica, vox humana, vulgar, weed-choked, weed-ridden, weedy,
weevily, weight, weightiness, wicked, wimpled, windrow, wing,
woeful, word arrangement, word order, workers, wormy, worst,
worthless, wretched, wrong, yecchy, yucky
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):
RANK, n. Relative elevation in the scale of human worth.
He held at court a rank so high
That other noblemen asked why.
"Because," 'twas answered, "others lack
His skill to scratch the royal back."
Aramis Jukes