Nefarious vs Rank - What's the difference?

Nefarious is a related term of rank.

As adjectives the difference between nefarious and rank

is that nefarious is sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics while rank is heavy, serious, grievous.

nefarious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.

* 1828 , , The Red Rover , ch. 2:

"If the vessel be no fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty, it is as tangible as the best man's reasoning, that she may be neither more nor less than the ship of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover."

* 1877 , , The Life of Cicero , ch. 9:

Mommsen . . . declares that Catiline in particular was "one of the most nefarious' men in that ' nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records, not to history."

* 1921 , , The Indiscretions of Archie , ch. 26:

The fact that the room was still in darkness made it obvious that something nefarious was afoot. Plainly there was dirty work in preparation at the cross-roads.

* 2009 Oct. 14, Monica Davey, " Fact Checker Finds Falsehoods in Remarks," New York Times (retrieved 12 May 2014):

“I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.”

Usage notes

* Commonly used in contexts involving villainous plans, conspiracies, or actions, as in: :* 1909 , , The Lady of the Shroud , book 7: ::: The whole nefarious scheme was one of the "put-up jobs" which are part of the dirty work of a certain order of statecraft.

Synonyms

* evil, iniquitous, sinister, underhanded, vile * See also

Derived terms

* nefariously * nefariousness

References

rank

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Adjective

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

And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.

*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)

, title= 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.}}

Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.

* 1899 , (Joseph Conrad),

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

Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.

(Mortimer)

Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.

Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.

* (Robert Boyle) (1627-1691)

Divers sea fowls taste rank of the fish on which they feed.

Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=March 1, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
, title= 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.}}
(label) Gross, disgusting.

(label) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.

(label) Inflamed with venereal appetite.

(Shakespeare)

Synonyms

* (bad odor) stinky, smelly ** See also: pong (UK) * (complete) complete, utter

Adverb

(en adverb)
(obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.

* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iii:

The seely man seeing him ryde so rancke , / And ayme at him, fell flat to ground for feare [...].

* Fairfax

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)
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"].

The front rank''' kneeled to reload while the second '''rank fired over their heads.

* {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
, title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=7 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
# (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

Based on your test scores, you have a rank of 23.

The fancy hotel was of the first rank.

(class)The level of one's position in a class-based society

a level in an organization such as the military

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.

(taxonomy) a level in a scientific taxonomy system

Phylum is the taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class.

(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 .

Derived terms

* break rank * close ranks * pull rank

Verb

(en verb)
To place abreast, or in a line.

To have a ranking.

Their defense ranked third in the league.

To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.

* I. Watts

Ranking all things under general and special heads.

* Broome

Poets were ranked in the class of philosophers.

* Dr. H. More

Heresy is ranked with idolatry and witchcraft.

(US) To take rank of; to outrank.

Anagrams

* * * English intensifiers ----