stark

stark is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 6 senses, and appears in Roget's Thesaurus (1911) with 40 related terms. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Complete; absolute; full; perfect; entire. [Obs.] Consider the stark security The common wealth is in now. B. Jonson.
  2. 2.Strong; vigorous; powerful. A stark, moss-trooping Scot. Sir W. Scott. Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer. Beau. & Fl.
  3. 3.Severe; violent; fierce. [Obs.] "In starke stours." [i. e., in fierce combats]. Chaucer.
  4. 4.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.
  5. 5.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.
  6. 6.To stiffen. [R.] If horror have not starked your limbs. H. Taylor.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is stark.

Sources

  • Definitions: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
  • Synonyms: Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition (public domain, via Project Gutenberg eBook #10681).
  • Canonical URL: https://worddirectanswers.com/word/stark
  • Steward: Jason Burns