Definitions for: Stark


[adv] completely; "stark mad"; "mouth stark open"
[adj] providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"
[adj] complete or extreme; "stark poverty"; "a stark contrast"
[adj] severely simple; "a stark interior"



Webster (1913) Definition: Stark, a. [Compar. Starker; superl. Starkest.] [OE.
stark stiff, strong, AS. stearc; akin to OS. starc strong, D.
sterk, OHG. starc, starah, G. & Sw. stark, Dan. st[ae]rk,
Icel. sterkr, Goth. gasta['u]rknan to become dried up, Lith.
str["e]gti 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, adv.
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, v. t.
To stiffen. [R.]

If horror have not starked your limbs. --H. Taylor.

Synonyms: austere, bare, barren, bleak, desolate, immoderate, inhospitable, plain, severe

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