Meaning

The quality of being rank, of having a repulsive or pungent odor..

Definitions by Sense

1. The quality of being rank, of having a repulsive or pungent odor.
2. Exuberant or uncontrolled growth.
3. (obsolete) Exuberance, excessiveness.
4. (obsolete) Insolence.

Example Sentences

1578, Raphael Holinshed et al., Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, Volume I, Book 3, Chapter 1 “Of cattell kept for profit,” p. 222, […] the bowels of the beast are commonlie cast awaie because of their ranknesse […]

A match scratched and the sweet rankness of his corn-cob pipe drifted through the rooms.

Tam’d us to Manners, when the Stage was rude;

[…] 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.

[…] briar and bramble shoots lay athwart one’s path with thorns like arrowheads often concealed in tangles of grass and willowherb and cow parsley, while underlying this rankness, like a reminder of a more elegant epoch, one was aware at times of Howard’s cultivation, rose and magnolia and peony continued to flower […]

First Gentleman. God save you, sir! where have you been broiling? Third Gentleman. Among the crowd i’ the Abbey; where a finger Could not be wedged in more: I am stifled With the mere rankness of their joy.

I will physic your rankness […]

Word Forms

• ranknesses

Synonyms for rankness

Related Words

When Should You Use Rankness?

Use rankness when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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