rank exuberant, grown to great height:
“what, so rank?”
HENRY VIII., i. 2. 186
(
“what, was he advanced to this pitch?”
JOHNSON)
;
“rank Achilles,”
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, i. 3.
318
;
“who else is rank”
JULIUS CAESAR, iii. 1. 153
(
“who else may be supposed to have overtopped his equals, and
grown too high for the public safety,”
JOHNSON
; but here Malone, wrongly, I believe, would understand rank as
“replete with blood),”;
“Rain added to a river that is rank”
VENUS AND ADONIS, 71
(brimful);
“A ranker rate,”
HAMLET, iv. 4. 22.