Stark
WordNet
adjective
(1) Providing no shelter or sustenance
"Bare rocky hills"
"Barren lands"
"The bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"
"The desolate surface of the moon"
"A stark landscape"
(2) Complete or extreme
"Stark poverty"
"A stark contrast"
(3) Severely simple
"A stark interior"
adverb
(4) Completely
"Stark mad"
"Mouth stark open"
WiktionaryText
Adjective
- hard, firm; obdurate.
- severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather)
- strong; vigorous; powerful.
- stiff, rigid
- His body was already stiff and stark.
- hard in appearance; barren, desolate
- I picked my way forlornly through the stark, sharp rocks.
- complete, absolute, full
- I screamed in stark terror.
Adverb
- starkly; entirely, absolutely
- He's gone stark, staring mad.
- She was just standing there, stark naked.
Verb
- (obsolete except in dialects) To stiffen.
- (Publishing) To edit mercilessly with an iron hand
- Laurie needs to stark this asap.
Etymology
, whence also Old English stearc, Old Norse sterkr