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Rancid

Having a rank smell or taste, from chemical change or decomposition; musty; as, rancid oil or butter.

Rancidity

The quality or state of being rancid; a rancid scent or flavor, as of old oil.

Rancor

The deepest malignity or spite; deep-seated enmity or malice; inveterate hatred.

Rancorous

Full of rancor; evincing, or caused by, rancor; deeply malignant; implacably spiteful or malicious; intensely virulent.

Rand

To rant; to storm.

Randan

A boat propelled by three rowers with four oars, the middle rower pulling two.

Randing

The act or process of making and applying rands for shoes.

Random

Going at random or by chance; done or made at hazard, or without settled direction, aim, or purpose; hazarded without previous calculation; left to chance; haphazard; as, a random guess.

Randomize

To arrange or rearrange so that there is no predetermined order; to make random; to select by a random process; to assign (members of a group) into subgroups by a random process.

Randon

To go or stray at random.

Rang

imp. of Ring, v. t. i.

Range

A series of things in a line; a row; a rank; as, a range of buildings; a range of mountains.

Ranger

One who ranges; a rover; sometimes, one who ranges for plunder; a roving robber.

Rangership

The office of the keeper of a forest or park.

Rangle

To range about in an irregular manner.

Rangy

Inclined or able to range, or rove about, for considerable distances; apt or suited for much roving, -- chiefly used of cattle.

Rani

A queen or princess; the wife of a rajah.

Ranine

Of or pertaining to the frogs and toads.

Rank

To be ranged; to be set or disposed, as in a particular degree, class, order, or division.

Ranker

One who ranks, or disposes in ranks; one who arranges.

Rankle

To cause to fester; to make sore; to inflame.

Rankly

With rank or vigorous growth; luxuriantly; hence, coarsely; grossly; as, weeds grow rankly.

Rankness

The condition or quality of being rank.

Ransack

The act of ransacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage.

Ransom

To redeem from captivity, servitude, punishment, or forfeit, by paying a price; to buy out of servitude or penalty; to rescue; to deliver; as, to ransom prisoners from an enemy.

Ransomless

Incapable of being ransomed; without ransom.

Rant

High-sounding language, without importance or dignity of thought; boisterous, empty declamation; bombast; as, the rant of fanatics.

Ranter

A noisy talker; a raving declaimer.

Ranterism

The practice or tenets of the Ranters.

Ranty

Wild; noisy; boisterous.

Ranula

A cyst formed under the tongue by obstruction of the duct of the submaxillary gland.

Ranunculaceous

Of or pertaining to a natural order of plants (Ranunculaceae), of which the buttercup is the type, and which includes also the virgin's bower, the monkshood, larkspur, anemone, meadow rue, and peony.

Ranunculus

A genus of herbs, mostly with yellow flowers, including crowfoot, buttercups, and the cultivated ranunculi (Ranunculus Asiaticus, Ranunculus aconitifolius, etc.) in which the flowers are double and of various colors.

Rap

conversation; also, rapping.

rap music

a type of rhythmic talking, often with accompanying rhythm instruments; same as 7th rap, n..

Rapacity

The quality of being rapacious; rapaciousness; ravenousness; as, the rapacity of pirates; the rapacity of wolves.

Rape

A name given to a variety or to varieties of a plant of the turnip kind, grown for seeds and herbage. The seeds are used for the production of rape oil, and to a limited extent for the food of cage birds.

Raphaelesque

Like Raphael's works; in Raphael's manner of painting.

Raphaelism

The principles of painting introduced by Raphael, the Italian painter.

Raphaelite

One who advocates or adopts the principles of Raphaelism.

Raphany

A convulsive disease, attended with ravenous hunger, not uncommon in Sweden and Germany. It was so called because supposed to be caused by eating corn with which seeds of jointed charlock (Raphanus raphanistrum) had been mixed, but the condition is now known to be a form of ergotism.

Raphe

A line, ridge, furrow, or band of fibers, especially in the median line; as, the raphe of the tongue.

Rapid-fire

Occurring in rapid succession like the shots fired from a machine gun. See also machine-gun.

Rapid-firing Rapid-fire

Firing shots in rapid succession. Capable of being fired rapidly; -- applied to single-barreled guns of greater caliber than small arms, mounted so as to be quickly trained and elevated, with a quick-acting breech mechanism operated by a single motion of a crank or lever (abbr. R. F.); In the United States navy, designating such a gun using fixed ammunition or metallic cartridge cases; -- distinguished from breech-loading (abbr. B. L.), applied to all guns loading with the charge in bags, and formerly from quick-fire. Rapid-fire guns in the navy also sometimes include automatic or semiautomatic rapid-fire guns; the former being automatic guns of not less than one inch caliber, firing a shell of not less than one pound weight, the explosion of each cartridge operating the mechanism for ejecting the empty shell, loading, and firing the next shot, the latter being guns that require one operation of the hand at each discharge, to load the gun. In the United States army, designating such a gun, whether using fixed or separate ammunition, designed chiefly for use in coast batteries against torpedo vessels and the lightly armored batteries or other war vessels and for the protection of defensive mine fields; -- not distinguished from quick-fire. In Great Britain and Europe used, rarely, as synonymous with quick-fire.

Rapidity

The quality or state of being rapid; swiftness; celerity; velocity; as, the rapidity of a current; rapidity of speech; rapidity of growth or improvement.

Rapids Rapid

The part of a river where the current moves with great swiftness, but without actual waterfall or cascade; sometimes called whitewater; -- usually used in the plural; as, the Lachine rapids in the St. Lawrence. For boaters on the river, it is a place that can be hazardous, with danger of capsizing or crashing into large rocks.

Rapier

A straight sword, with a narrow and finely pointed blade, used only for thrusting.

Rappage

The enlargement of a mold caused by rapping the pattern.

Rapparee

A wild Irish plunderer, esp. one of the 17th century; -- so called from his carrying a half-pike, called a rapary.

Rapped

imp. p. p. of Rap, to snatch away.

Rappee

A pungent kind of snuff made from the darker and ranker kinds of tobacco leaves.

Rappel

The beat of the drum to call soldiers to arms.

Rapper

One who, or that which, raps or knocks; specifically, the knocker of a door.

Rapport

Relation; proportion; conformity; correspondence; accord.

Rapprochement

Act or fact of coming or being drawn near or together; establishment or state of cordial relations.

Rapt

To transport or ravish.

Raptor

A ravisher; a plunderer.

Raptores

An order of birds, same as Accipitres. Called also Raptatores.

Raptorial

Rapacious; living upon prey; -- said especially of certain birds. Adapted for seizing prey; -- said of the legs, claws, etc., of insects, birds, and other animals. Of or pertaining to the Raptores. See Illust. (f) of Aves.

Rapture

To transport with excitement; to enrapture.

Rapturize

To put, or be put, in a state of rapture.

Rapturous

Ecstatic; transporting; ravishing; feeling, expressing, or manifesting rapture; as, rapturous joy, pleasure, or delight; rapturous applause.

Rare

Not frequent; seldom met with or occurring; unusual; as, a rare event.

Rarebit

A dainty morsel; a Welsh rabbit. See Welsh rabbit, under Rabbit.

Raree-show

A show carried about in a box; a peep show.

Rarefaction

The act or process of rarefying; the state of being rarefied; -- opposed to condensation; as, the rarefaction of air.

Rarefy

To become less dense; to become thin and porous.

Rarely

In a rare manner or degree; seldom; not often; as, things rarely seen.

Rareness

The state or quality of being rare.

Rareripe

An early ripening fruit, especially a kind of freestone peach.

Rarity

The quality or state of being rare; rareness; thinness; as, the rarity (contrasted with the density) of gases.

Ras

See 2d Reis.

ras

The name and genetic symbol for a mutant gene that has been identified as one of those associated with certains types of cancer; -- it is a form of oncogene. It was first observed in rats, but analogues have been found in humans and other animals.

Rasante

Sweeping; grazing; -- applied to a style of fortification in which the command of the works over each other, and over the country, is kept very low, in order that the shot may more effectually sweep or graze the ground before them.

Rascal

Of or pertaining to the common herd or common people; low; mean; base.

Rascaldom

State of being a rascal; rascality; domain of rascals; rascals, collectively.

Rascallion

A low, mean wretch; a rogue; same as rascal, n.. 2; now disused, replaced by rapscalion.

Rascally

Like a rascal; trickish or dishonest; base; worthless; -- often in humorous disparagement, without implication of dishonesty.

Rase

A scratching out, or erasure.

Rash

To prepare with haste.

Rashly

In a rash manner; with precipitation.

Rashness

The quality or state of being rash.

Raskolnik

The name applied by the Russian government to any subject of the Greek faith who dissents from the established church. The Raskolniki embrace many sects, whose common characteristic is a clinging to antique traditions, habits, and customs. The schism originated in 1667 in an ecclesiastical dispute as to the correctness of the translation of the religious books. The dissenters, who have been continually persecuted, are believed to number about 20,000,000, although the Holy Synod officially puts the number at about 2,000,000. They are officially divided into three groups according to the degree of their variance from orthodox beliefs and observances, as follows: I. /Most obnoxious./ the Judaizers; the Molokane, who refuse to recognize civil authority or to take oaths; the Dukhobortsy, or Dukhobors, who are communistic, marry without ceremony, and believe that Christ was human, but that his soul reappears at intervals in living men; the Khlysty, who countenance anthropolatory, are ascetics, practice continual self-flagellation, and reject marriage; the Skoptsy, who practice castration; and a section of the Bezpopovtsy, or priestless sect, which disbelieve in prayers for the Czar and in marriage. II. /Obnoxious:/ the Bezpopovtsy, who pray for the Czar and recognize marriage. III. /Least obnoxious:/ the Popovtsy, who dissent from the orthodox church in minor points only.

Rasores

An order of birds; the Gallinae.

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