rankishadj.

1495 Trevisa's Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Rerum (de Worde) xvii. clxviii. sig. Vij Fatte and rankysshe whete and heuy of weyghte.

a1544 R. Barlow tr. M. Fernández de Enciso Brief Summe Geogr. (1932) 162 In other ilondes we sawe no thinge but comorantes, and the meate of them be good and verie fatte and thei have no rankyshe savour as the comorantes have here.

1589 A. Fleming tr. Virgil Georgiks ii. 31 in A. Fleming tr. Virgil Bucoliks These able are for rankish soile.

1651 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi i. v. 175 The flesh of Castrated Animals is more delicate, because there is in them more benigne juyce, neither is their flesh infected with the ungrateful and rankish relish of the Testicles.

1686 R. Blome Gentlemans Recreation iii. xi. 90/1 Their [sc. badgers'] Flesh is of a sweet rankish tast, but is eaten in many Countries.

1774 T. Nugent New Pocket Dict. French & Eng. (ed. 2) Rankish, un peu rance.

1799 W. Nicol Pract. Planter x. 361 The plants should be bedded among the manure; previously sprinkling on a little earth, if rankish dung be applied.

1854 Harper's Mag. June 97/2 It had a yellowish crust all round it, and was rather rankish, I thought, to the taste.

1892 G. McClellan September Night in Poems (1895) 23 The waters half asleep creep on and on their way, twixt rankish reeds, through marsh and lowlands stretching to the gulf.

1925 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 25 Oct. (advt.) The rankish, dankish odors from the witches' cauldrons rise.

1944 Lowell (Mass.) Sun 27 May 2/8 The smell of rankish cigarette smoke recently resulted in capture of two German soldiers on the Fifth army front in Italy.

2003 Washington Post (Nexis) 21 Mar. t22 The rack of lamb was cooked as ordered, but wore a thick mantle of fat that made the mustard crusting rather quixotic (and it's that same layer that provides the rankish smell some diners find queasy-making).