rankness
English
Etymology
From rank + -ness.
Noun
rankness (countable and uncountable, plural ranknesses)
- The quality of being rank, of having a repulsive or pungent odor.
- 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 […]
- 1933, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, South Moon Under, Chapter 34,
- A match scratched and the sweet rankness of his corn-cob pipe drifted through the rooms.
- 1578, Raphael Holinshed et al., Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, Volume I, Book 3, Chapter 1 “Of cattell kept for profit,” p. 222,
- Exuberant or uncontrolled growth.
- 1706, John Dryden, “To my Dear Friend Mr. Congreve, On His Comedy, call’d, The Double-Dealer” in The Double Dealer by William Congreve, London: Jacob Tonson,
- Like Janus he the stubborn Soil manur’d,
- With Rules of Husbandry the Rankness cur’d:
- Tam’d us to Manners, when the Stage was rude;
- And boistrous English Wit, with Art indu’d.
- 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter 18,
- […] 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.
- 1970, Barry Unsworth, The Hide, New York: Norton, 1997, p. 139,
- […] 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 […]
- 1706, John Dryden, “To my Dear Friend Mr. Congreve, On His Comedy, call’d, The Double-Dealer” in The Double Dealer by William Congreve, London: Jacob Tonson,
- (obsolete) Exuberance, excessiveness.
- 1613, William Shakespeare; [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i]:
- 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.
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- (obsolete) Insolence.
- c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:
- I will physic your rankness […]
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Translations
the property of being rank
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