Dismal vs Rank - What's the difference?
dismal | rank | Related terms |
Disappointingly inadequate.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
, title= Gloomy and bleak.
Depressing.
*, chapter=12
, title= Strong of its kind or in character; unmitigated; virulent; thorough; utter.
Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.
* Bible, (w) xli. 5
*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.
* 1899 , (Joseph Conrad),
Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.
Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.
Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.
* (Robert Boyle) (1627-1691)
Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=March 1, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
, title= (label) Gross, disgusting.
(label) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.
(label) Inflamed with venereal appetite.
(obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iii:
* Fairfax
A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers [the corresponding term for the perpendicular columns in such a pattern is "file"].
* {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
, title=The Dust of Conflict
, chapter=7 # (chess) one of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard [the corresponding term for a vertical line is "file"].
(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
(class)The level of one's position in a class-based society
a level in an organization such as the military
(taxonomy) a level in a scientific taxonomy system
(linear algebra) Maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.
The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor (mathematics).
(chess) one of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those which run from letter to letter). The analog vertical lines are the files .
To place abreast, or in a line.
To have a ranking.
To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.
* I. Watts
* Broome
* Dr. H. More
(US) To take rank of; to outrank.
Dismal is a related term of rank.
As adjectives the difference between dismal and rank
is that dismal is disappointingly inadequate while rank is heavy, serious, grievous.dismal
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Liverpool 0-1 West Brom, passage=Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.}}
Usage notes
* Nouns to which "dismal" is often applied: failure, performance, state, record, place, result, scene, season, year, economy, future, fate, weather, news, condition, history.Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* dismal sciencerank
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Adjective
- And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=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.}}
- 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
- (Mortimer)
- Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they feed.
Chelsea 2-1 Man Utd, passage=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.}}
- (Shakespeare)
Synonyms
* (bad odor) stinky, smelly ** See also: pong (UK) * (complete) complete, utterAdverb
(en adverb)- The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke , / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare [...].
- That rides so rank and bends his lance so fell.
Etymology 2
(etyl) , which is of uncertain origin. Akin to (etyl) . More at (ring).Noun
(en noun)- The front rank''' kneeled to reload while the second '''rank fired over their heads.
citation, passage=Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters, from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs
- Based on your test scores, you have a rank of 23.
- The fancy hotel was of the first rank.
- Private First Class (PFC) is the lowest rank in the Marines.
- He rose up through the ranks of the company from mailroom clerk to CEO.
- Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.
Derived terms
* break rank * close ranks * pull rankVerb
(en verb)- Their defense ranked third in the league.
- Ranking all things under general and special heads.
- Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.
- Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft.