Category:Stark

Stark, a. [compar. Starker; superl. Starkest.] Etym: [oe. stark Stiff, strong, as. stearc; akin to os. starc strong, d. sterk, ohg. Starc, starah, g. & sw. stark, dan. stærk, icel. sterkr, goth. Gastaúrknan to become dried up, lith. strëgti to stiffen, to freeze. Cf. Starch, a. & n.]

1. Stiff; rigid. Chaucer. Whose senses all were straight benumbed and stark. Spenser. His heart gan wax as stark as marble stone. Spenser. Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff under the hoofs of vaunting Enemies. Shak. The north is not so stark and cold. B. Jonson.

2. Complete; absolute; full; perfect; entire. [obs.] Consider the stark security the common wealth is in now. B. Jonson.

3. Strong; vigorous; powerful. A stark, moss-trooping scot. Sir w. Scott. Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer. Beau. & fl.

4. Severe; violent; fierce. [obs.] "in starke stours." [i. e., in Fierce combats]. Chaucer.

5. Mere; sheer; gross; entire; downright. He pronounces the citation stark nonsense. Collier. Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric. Selden.

Stark Stark, adv.

Defn: wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind. Shak. Held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead. Fuller. Stark naked, wholly naked; quite bare. Strip your sword stark naked. Shak.

Note: according to professor skeat, "stark-naked" is derived from Steort-naked, or start-naked, literally tail-naked, and hence wholly Naked. If this etymology be true the preferable form is stark-naked.

Stark Stark, v. t.

Defn: to stiffen. [r.] If horror have not starked your limbs. H. Taylor.