rankness

plural ranknesses

1. countableuncountableThe 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 […]

   1 more example

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

   1933, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 34, in South Moon Under

2. countableuncountableExuberant or uncontrolled growth.

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

   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

   2 more examples

   […] 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.

   1847, Emily Brontë, chapter 18, in Wuthering Heights

   […] 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 […]

   1970, Barry Unsworth, The Hide, New York: Norton, published 1997, page 139

3. countableobsoleteuncountableExuberance, excessiveness.

   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.

   1613 (date written), 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, [Act IV, scene i]

4. countableobsoleteuncountableInsolence.

   I will physic your rankness […]

   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, [Act I, scene i]