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.
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.
If horror have not starked your limbs. --H. Taylor.