Part 745

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.

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.