stark

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

stark, a. [OE. stark stiff, strong, AS. stearc; akin to OS. starc strong, D. sterk, OHG. starc, starah, G. & Sw. stark, Dan. stærk, Icel. sterkr, Goth. gastaúrknan to become dried up, Lith. strëgti to stiffen, to freeze. Cf. Starch, a. & n.].

•  Stiff; rigid.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "Whose senses all were straight benumbed and stark."  [1913 Webster]

  "His heart gan wax as stark as marble stone."  [1913 Webster]

  "Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
  Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies."  [1913 Webster]

  "The north is not so stark and cold."  [1913 Webster]
•  Complete; absolute; full; perfect; entire.  [1913 Webster]

  "Consider the stark security
  The common wealth is in now."  [1913 Webster]
•  Strong; vigorous; powerful.  [1913 Webster]

  "A stark, moss-trooping Scot."  [1913 Webster]

  "Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer."  [1913 Webster]
•  Severe; violent; fierce.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]
•  Mere; sheer; gross; entire; downright.  [1913 Webster]

  "He pronounces the citation stark nonsense."  [1913 Webster]

  "Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric."  [1913 Webster]

stark, adv. 

 Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mad.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
" 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."  [1913 Webster]
"Held him strangled in his arms till he was stark dead."  [1913 Webster]
"Strip your sword stark naked."  [1913 Webster]

Stark naked, wholly naked; quite bare.

stark, v. t. 

 To stiffen.  [1913 Webster]
"If horror have not starked your limbs."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

stark, adj. & adv.
--adj.
1 desolate, bare (a stark landscape).
2 sharply evident (in stark contrast).
3 downright, sheer (stark madness).
4 completely naked.
5 archaic strong, stiff, rigid.
--adv. completely, wholly (stark mad; stark naked).

Derivative

starkly adv. starkness n.

Etymology

OE stearc f. Gmc: stark naked f. earlier start-naked f. obs. start tail: cf. REDSTART

THESAURUS

stark

Spartan, absolute, absolutely, altogether, arrant, ascetic, austere, bald, bare, barren, basic, blasted, bleak, blessed, blunt, candid, chaste, classical, clean, clear, clearly, cold, common, commonplace, complete, completely, confounded, consummate, crass, decided, definitive, depressing, desolate, direct, downright, drear, dreary, dry, dull, egregious, elementary, empty, entirely, essential, evident, flagrant, frank, fully, fundamental, glaring, grey, grim, gross, hard, harsh, homely, homespun, homogeneous, indivisible, infernal, inornate, intolerable, irreducible, irretrievably, irrevocably, lean, matter-of-fact, mere, monolithic, naked, natural, neat, nude, obvious, obviously, of a piece, open, out-and-out, outright, patent, perfect, perfectly, plain, plain-speaking, plain-spoken, plainly, plumb, positive, primary, profound, pronounced, proper, prosaic, prosing, prosy, pure, pure and simple, quite, rank, ravaged, raw, regular, right, rustic, severe, shattering, sheer, shocking, simon-pure, simple, simple-speaking, single, sober, spare, spooky, stark-naked, stark-staring, straightforward, stripped, superlative, surpassing, the veriest, thorough, thoroughgoing, total, totally, unadorned, unaffected, unbearable, unclad, unclothed, uncluttered, unconditional, unconscionable, undeniable, undifferenced, undifferentiated, unelaborate, unembellished, unenhanced, unequivocal, unfancy, unfussy, uniform, unimaginative, unmitigated, unornate, unpoetical, unqualified, unrelieved, unrelievedly, unspoiled, unvarnished, utter, utterly, vacant, vacuous, void, wholly

ROGET THESAURUS

stark

Greatness

N greatness, magnitude, size, multitude, immensity, enormity, infinity, might, strength, intensity, fullness, importance, great quantity, quantity, deal, power, sight, pot, volume, world, mass, heap, stock, peck, bushel, load, cargo, cartload, wagonload, shipload, flood, spring tide, abundance, principal part, chief part, main part, greater part, major part, best part, essential part, bulk, mass, great, greater, large, considerable, fair, above par, big, huge, Herculean, cyclopean, ample, abundant, full, intense, strong, sound, passing, heavy, plenary, deep, high, signal, at its height, in the zenith, world-wide, widespread, far-famed, extensive, wholesale, many, goodly, noble, precious, mighty, sad, grave, heavy, serious, far gone, arrant, downright, utter, uttermost, crass, gross, arch, profound, intense, consummate, rank, uninitiated, red-hot, desperate, glaring, flagrant, stark staring, thorough-paced, thoroughgoing, roaring, thumping, extraordinary, important, unsurpassed, complete, august, grand, dignified, sublime, majestic, vast, immense, enormous, extreme, inordinate, excessive, extravagant, exorbitant, outrageous, preposterous, unconscionable, swinging, monstrous, overgrown, towering, stupendous, prodigious, astonishing, incredible, marvelous, unlimited, unapproachable, unutterable, indescribable, ineffable, unspeakable, inexpressible, beyond expression, fabulous, undiminished, unabated, unreduced, unrestricted, absolute, positive, stark, decided, unequivocal, essential, perfect, finished, remarkable, of mark, marked, pointed, veriest, noteworthy, renowned, truly, decidedly, unequivocally, purely, absolutely, seriously, essentially, fundamentally, radically, downright, in all conscience, for the most part, in the main, entirely, abundantly, widely, far and wide, greatly, much, muckle, well, indeed, very, very much, a deal, no end of, most, not a little, pretty, pretty well, enough, in a great measure, richly, to a large extent, to a great extent, to a gigantic extent, on a large scale, so, never so, ever so, ever so dole, scrap, shred, tag, splinter, rag, much, by wholesale, mighty, powerfully, with a witness, ultra, in the extreme, extremely, exceedingly, intensely, exquisitely, acutely, indefinitely, immeasurably, beyond compare, beyond comparison, beyond measure, beyond all bounds, incalculably, infinitely, preeminently, superlatively, immoderately, monstrously, preposterously, inordinately, exorbitantly, excessively, enormously, out of all proportion, with a vengeance, particularly, remarkably, singularly, curiously, uncommonly, unusually, peculiarly, notably, signally, strikingly, pointedly, mainly, chiefly, famously, egregiously, prominently, glaringly, emphatically, kat exochin, strangely, wonderfully, amazingly, surprisingly, astonishingly, incredibly, marvelously, awfully, stupendously, peculiarly, furiously, severely, desperately, tremendously, extravagantly, confoundedly, deucedly, devilishly, with a vengeance, a outrance, a toute outrance, painfully, sadly, grossly, sorely, bitterly, piteously, grievously, miserably, cruelly, woefully, lamentably, shockingly, frightfully, dreadfully, fearfully, terribly, horribly, a maximis ad minima, greatness knows itself, mightiest powers by deepest calms are fed, minimum decet libere cui multum licet, some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Smallness

N smallness, littleness, tenuity, paucity, fewness, meanness, insignificance (unimportance), mediocrity, moderation, small quantity, modicum, trace, hint, minimum, vanishing point, material point, atom, particle, molecule, corpuscle, point, speck, dot, mote, jot, iota, ace, minutiae, details, look, thought, idea, soupcon, dab, dight, whit, tittle, shade, shadow, spark, scintilla, gleam, touch, cast, grain, scruple, granule, globule, minim, sup, sip, sop, spice, drop, droplet, sprinkling, dash, morceau, screed, smack, tinge, tincture, inch, patch, scantling, tatter, cantlet, flitter, gobbet, mite, bit, morsel, crumb, seed, fritter, shive, snip, snippet, snick, snack, snatch, slip, scrag, chip, chipping, shiver, sliver, driblet, clipping, paring, shaving, hair, nutshell, thimbleful, spoonful, handful, capful, mouthful, fragment, fraction, drop in the ocean, animalcule, trifle, mere nothing, next to nothing, hardly anything, just enough to swear by, the shadow of a shade, finiteness, finite quantity, small, little, diminutive, minute, fine, inconsiderable, paltry, faint, slender, light, slight, scanty, scant, limited, meager, sparing, few, low, so-so, middling, tolerable, no great shakes, below par, under par, below the mark, at a low ebb, halfway, moderate, modest, tender, subtle, inappreciable, evanescent, infinitesimal, homeopathic, very small, atomic, corpuscular, microscopic, molecular, subatomic, mere, simple, sheer, stark, bare, near run, dull, petty, shallow, stolid, ungifted, unintelligent, to a small extent, on a small scale, a little bit, a wee bit, slightly, imperceptibly, miserably, wretchedly, insufficiently, imperfectly, faintly, passably, pretty well, well enough, partially, in part, in a certain degree, to a certain degree, to a certain extent, comparatively, some, rather in some degree, in some measure, something, somewhat, simply, only, purely, merely, at least, at the least, at most, at the most, ever so little, as little as may be, tant soit peu, in ever so small a degree, thus far, pro tanto, within bounds, in a manner, after a fashion, so to speak, almost, nearly, well-nigh, short of, not quite, all but, near upon, close upon, peu s'en faut, near the mark, within an ace of, within an inch of, on the brink of, scarcely, hardly, barely, only just, no more than, about, thereabouts, somewhere about, nearly, say, be the same, be little more or less, no ways, no way, no wise, not at all, not in the least, not a bit, not a bit of it, not a whit, not a jot, not a shadow, in no wise, in no respect, by no means, by no manner of means, on no account, at no hand, dare pondus idonea fumo, magno conatu magnas nugas, small sands the mountain, moments make the year.

Completeness

N completeness, completion, integration, allness, entirety, perfection, solidity, solidarity, unity, all, ne plus ultra, ideal, limit, complement, supplement, make-weight, filling, up, impletion, saturation, saturity, high water, high tide, flood tide, spring tide, fill, load, bumper, bellyful, brimmer, sufficiency, complete, entire, whole, perfect, full, good, absolute, thorough, plenary, solid, undivided, with all its parts, all- sided, exhaustive, radical, sweeping, thorough-going, dead, regular, consummate, unmitigated, sheer, unqualified, unconditional, free, abundant, brimming, brimful, topful, topfull, chock full, choke full, as full as an egg is of meat, as full as a vetch, saturated, crammed, replete, fraught, laden, full-laden, full-fraught, full-charged, heavy laden, completing, supplemental, supplementary, ascititious, completely, altogether, outright, wholly, totally, in toto, quite, all out, over head and ears, effectually, for good and all, nicely, fully, through thick and thin, head and shoulders, neck and heel, neck and crop, in all respects, in every respect, at all points, out and out, to all intents and purposes, toto coelo, utterly, clean, clean as a whistle, to the full, to the utmost, to the backbone, hollow, stark, heart and soul, root and branch, down to the ground, to the top of one's bent, as far as possible, a outrance, throughout, from first to last, from beginning to end, from end to end, from one end to the other, from Dan to Beersheba, from head to foot, from top to toe, from top to bottom, de fond en comble, a fond, a capite ad calcem, ab ovo usque ad mala, fore and aft, every, whit, every inch, cap-a-pie, to the end of the chapter, up to the brim, up to the ears, up to the eyes, as a as can be, on all accounts, sous tous les rapports, with a vengeance, with a witness, falsus in uno falsus in omnibus, false in one thing, false in everything, omnem movere lapidem, una scopa nuova spazza bene.

Hardness

N hardness, rigidity, renitence, renitency, inflexibility, temper, callosity, durity, induration, petrifaction, lapidification, lapidescence, vitrification, ossification, crystallization, stone, pebble, flint, marble, rock, fossil, crag, crystal, quartz, granite, adamant, bone, cartilage, hardware, heart of oak, block, board, deal board, iron, steel, cast iron, decarbonized iron, wrought iron, nail, brick, concrete, cement, hard, rigid, stubborn, stiff, firm, starch, starched, stark, unbending, unlimber, unyielding, inflexible, tense, indurate, indurated, gritty, proof, adamant, adamantine, adamantean, concrete, stony, granitic, calculous, lithic, vitreous, horny, corneous, bony, osseous, ossific, cartilaginous, hard as a rock, stiff as buckram, stiff as a poker, stiff as starch, stiff as as board.