Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - rank

(ranks, ranking, ranked, ranker rankest) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Someone’s rank is the position or grade that they have in an organization. He eventually rose to the rank of captain... The former head of counter-intelligence had been stripped of his rank and privileges. N-VAR: with supp 2. Someone’s rank is the social class, especially the high social class, that they belong to. (FORMAL) He must be treated as a hostage of high rank, not as a common prisoner. N-VAR: usu with supp 3. If an official organization ranks someone or something 1st, 5th, or 50th, for example, they calculate that the person or thing has that position on a scale. You can also say that someone or something ranks 1st, 5th, or 50th, for example. The report ranks the UK 20th out of 22 advanced nations... ...the only British woman to be ranked in the top 50 of the women’s world rankings... Mr Short does not even rank in the world’s top ten. VERB: V n ord in/out of n, be V-ed in n, V in/among n 4. If you say that someone or something ranks high or low on a scale or if you rank them high or low, you are saying how good or important you think they are. His prices rank high among those of other contemporary photographers... Investors ranked South Korea high among Asian nations... St Petersburg’s night life ranks as more exciting than the capital’s... 18 per cent of women ranked sex as very important in their lives... The Ritz-Carlton in Aspen has to rank as one of the most extraordinary hotels I have ever been to... VERB: V adj among n, V n adj among n, V as adj, V n as adj, V as n 5. The ranks of a group or organization are the people who belong to it. There were some misgivings within the ranks of the media too... N-PLURAL: with supp 6. The ranks are the ordinary members of an organization, especially of the armed forces. Most store managers have worked their way up through the ranks. N-PLURAL: the N, oft prep N 7. A rank of people or things is a row of them. Ranks of police in riot gear stood nervously by... N-COUNT: usu N of n 8. A taxi rank is a place on a city street where taxis park when they are available for hire. (mainly BRIT; in AM, use stand) The man led the way to the taxi rank... N-COUNT 9. You can use rank to emphasize a bad or undesirable quality that exists in an extreme form. (FORMAL) He called it ‘rank hypocrisy’ that the government was now promoting equal rights. = sheer ADJ: ADJ n c darkgreen]emphasis 10. You can describe something as rank when it has a strong and unpleasant smell. (OLD-FASHIONED, WRITTEN) The kitchen was rank with the smell of drying uniforms. ...the rank smell of unwashed clothes. ADJ 11. If you say that a member of a group or organization breaks ranks, you mean that they disobey the instructions of their group or organization. Britain appears unlikely to break ranks with other members of the European Union. PHRASE: V inflects 12. If you say that the members of a group close ranks, you mean that they are supporting each other only because their group is being criticized. Institutions tend to close ranks when a member has been accused of misconduct. PHRASE: V inflects 13. If you experience something, usually something bad, that other people have experienced, you can say that you have joined their ranks. Last month, 370,000 Americans joined the ranks of the unemployed... PHRASE: V inflects 14. If you say that someone in authority pulls rank, you mean that they unfairly force other people to do what they want because of their higher rank or position. The Captain pulled rank and made his sergeant row the entire way. PHRASE: V inflects c darkgreen]disapproval