RANCID

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rancid mean? 

• RANCID (adjective)
  The adjective RANCID has 2 senses:

1. (used of decomposing oils or fats) having a rank smell or taste usually due to a chemical change or decomposition

2. smelling of fermentation or staleness

  Familiarity information: RANCID used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RANCID (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(used of decomposing oils or fats) having a rank smell or taste usually due to a chemical change or decomposition

Context example:

rancid bacon

Similar:

stale (lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age)

Derivation:

rancidness (the property of being rancid)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Smelling of fermentation or staleness

Synonyms:

rancid; sour

Similar:

ill-smelling; malodorous; malodourous; stinky; unpleasant-smelling (having an unpleasant smell)

Derivation:

rancidity (the state of being rancid; having a rancid scent or flavor (as of old cooking oil))

rancidness (the property of being rancid)

 Context examples 

So looks the Shakespearean who is confronted by a rancid Baconian, or the astronomer who is assailed by a flat-earth fanatic.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The odour which now filled the refectory was scarcely more appetising than that which had regaled our nostrils at breakfast: the dinner was served in two huge tin-plated vessels, whence rose a strong steam redolent of rancid fat.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As every person called up made exactly the same appearance he had done in the world, it gave me melancholy reflections to observe how much the race of human kind was degenerated among us within these hundred years past; how the pox, under all its consequences and denominations had altered every lineament of an English countenance; shortened the size of bodies, unbraced the nerves, relaxed the sinews and muscles, introduced a sallow complexion, and rendered the flesh loose and rancid.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)