Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word rank. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word rank, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say rank in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word rank you have here. The definition of the word rank will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofrank, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
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.
Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
rank land
1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land., London: J H for H Mortlock, and J Robinson, →OCLC:
fow Sprat or Fullum Barley, which is the best for rank Land, because it doth not run ſo much to Straw
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 […]
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 [Gareth] Southgate's side.
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.
(music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
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.
The level of one's position in a class-based society.
(typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation.
a membership drawn from the ranks of wealthy European businessmen
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. [...] 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.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth,, 2nd edition, London: John Clark and Richard Hett,, Emanuel Matthews,, and Richard Ford,, published 1726, →OCLC:
Ranking all things under general and special heads.
1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety., London: R. Norton for T. Garthwait,, →OCLC:
Heresy [is] ranked with idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, murders, and other sins of the flesh.
1960 December, Cecil J. Allen, “Operating a mountain main line: the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 743:
From time to time the coaches of the Lötschberg Railway itself, which in comfort and décor can rank with the finest in Europe today, travel far from the frontiers of Switzerland on through workings such as these.