rankness

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The 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 […]”

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

2. (countable, uncountable)Exuberant or uncontrolled growth.

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

   “[…] 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.”

   “[…] 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 […]”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Exuberance, 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.”

4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Insolence.

   “I will physic your rankness […]”