S — Stanzaic to Stark (Part 7 of 7)

3. Strong; vigorous; powerful.

A stark, moss-trooping Scot.

Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer.

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.

Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric.

Stark
(Stark) adv. Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind. Shak.

Held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead.

Stark naked, wholly naked; quite bare.

Strip your sword stark naked.

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. To stiffen. [R.]

If horror have not starked your limbs.