D defs.my
Entry 7 senses · 3 variants Webster, 1913

Stark

/(stärk)/ · IPA /stɑɹk/
01 a. Stiff; rigid.
  1. 1.
    Stiff; rigid.
    “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. 2.
    Complete; absolute; full; perfect; entire.[Obs.]
    “Consider the stark security The common wealth is in now.” B. Jonson.
  3. 3.
    Strong; vigorous; powerful.
    “A stark, moss-trooping Scot.Sir W. Scott.
    Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.” Beau. & Fl.
  4. 4.
    Severe; violent; fierce.[Obs.]
  5. 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.
02 adv. Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mad.
  1. 1.
    Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mad.
    “Held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead.” Fuller.
    “Strip your sword stark naked.” Shak.
Phrases & compounds
Stark naked — wholly naked; quite bare.
03 v. t. To stiffen.
  1. 1.
    To stiffen.[R.]
    “If horror have not starked your limbs.” — H. Taylor.