STARK

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.

Complete; absolute; full; perfect; entire. [Obs.] Consider the stark security The common wealth is in now. B. Jonson.

Strong; vigorous; powerful. A stark, moss-trooping Scot. Sir W. Scott. Stark beer, boy, stout and strong beer. Beau. & Fl.

Severe; violent; fierce. [Obs.] "In starke stours." [i. e., in fierce combats]. Chaucer.

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.

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.

To stiffen. [R.] If horror have not starked your limbs. H. Taylor.