Definition of "rank"

rank¹

/ɹæŋk/

adjective
comparative ranker or more rank, superlative rankest or most rank
1. (obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
  1. Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
    Quotations
    And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Genesis 41:5
    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.
    1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick
    Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
    Quotations
    fow Sprat or Fullum Barley, which is the best for rank Land, because it doth not run ſo much to Straw
    1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708
    Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
    Quotations
    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 […]
    1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I
  2. Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
    Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.
    Quotations
    Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they ordinarily feed.
    1661, Robert Boyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-physical Doubts & Paradoxes, […], London: […] J. Cadwell for J. Crooke, […]
    (informal) Gross, disgusting, foul.
2. (intensifier, negative) complete, unmitigated, utter.
  Quotations
  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.
  2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 21 April 2019
  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.
  2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd”, in BBC
3. (obsolete) lustful; lascivious
  Quotations
  the ewes being rank, In end of autumn turned to the rams
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
adverb
comparative more rank, superlative most rank
1. (obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
  Quotations
  The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke, / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare […] .
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
  That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.
  1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes

rank²

/ɹæŋk/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural ranks
1. A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.
  Quotations
  The Musketeers being on both flancks, firſt firing let the Ranck ſtand, and fire every Ranck, paſſing through before his leader […]
  1684, Richard Elton, The compleat body of the Art Military […] ‎, 2nd edition, page 196
  Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs […] .
  1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict‎
2. (chess) One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).
3. (music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.
4. One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, or quality.
5. The level of one's position in a class-based society.
6. (typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation.
  Quotations
  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.
  2017 September 23, “From north Wales to Norfolk, distraught beekeepers ask: who’s stealing our hives?”, in The Observer‎
7. A hierarchical level in an organization such as the military.
8. (taxonomy) A level in a scientific taxonomy system.
9. (mathematics) The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.
10. (linear algebra) The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
11. (algebra) The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D).
12. (mathematics) The size of any basis of a given matroid.
verb
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.
3. To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
  Quotations
  Ranking all things under general and special heads.
  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
  Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.
  1725–1726, Homer, “(please specify the book or chapter of the Odyssey)”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, and Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], London: […] Bernard Lintot
  Heresy [is] ranked with idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, murders, and other sins of the flesh.
  1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […]
  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.
  1960 December, Cecil J. Allen, “Operating a mountain main line: the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 743
4. (US) To take rank of; to outrank.

Definition of "rank"

rank1

adjective

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adverb

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rank2

noun

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verb

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rank¹

rank²