WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Stark
Part of Speech : a.
Etymology : [OE. stark stiff, strong, AS. stearc; akin to OS. starc strong, D. sterk, OHG. starc, starah, G. & Sw. stark, Dan. st?rk, Icel. sterkr, Goth. gasta?rknan to become dried up, Lith. str?gti to stiffen, to freeze. Cf. Starch, a. & n.]
Definition : 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.

[Compar. Starker; superl. Starkest.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Stark
Part of Speech : adv.
Definition : Defn: 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.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Stark
Part of Speech : v.
Definition : Defn: To stiffen. [R.] If horror have not starked your limbs. H. Taylor.

t.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913