What is "stark"

Stark \Stark\ (st[aum]rk), a. [Compar. Starker (-[~e]r); superl. Starkest.] [OE. stark stiff, strong, AS. stearc; akin to OS. starc strong, D. sterk, OHG. starc, starah, G. & Sw. stark, Dan. st[ae]rk, Icel. sterkr, Goth. gasta['u]rknan to become dried up, Lith. str["e]gti to stiffen, to freeze. Cf. Starch, a. & n.]

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.

Stark \Stark\ (st[aum]rk), adv. Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mad.
--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.

Stark \Stark\, v. t. To stiffen. [R.]

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

Old English stearc "stiff, strong, rigid, obstinate; stern, severe, hard; harsh, rough, violent," from Proto-Germanic *starkaz (cognates: Old Norse sterkr, Danish, Old Frisian sterk, Middle Dutch starc, Old High German starah, German stark, Gothic *starks), from PIE root *ster- (1) "stiff, rigid" (see stereo-). From the same root as stare (v.).\n

\nMeaning "utter, sheer, complete" first recorded c.1400, perhaps from influence of common phrase stark dead (late 14c.), with stark mistaken as an intensive adjective. Sense of "bare, barren" is from 1833. As an adverb from c.1200. Related: Starkly; starkness. Stark-raving (adj.) is from 1640s; earlier stark-staring 1530s.\n

Etymology 1

1. 1 (context obsolete English) hard, firm; obdurate. 2 severe; violent; fierce (now usually in describing the weather). adv. starkly; entirely, absolutely Etymology 2

   v

2. (context obsolete or dialect English) To stiffen.

1. adj. devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment; "the blunt truth"; "the crude facts"; "facing the stark reality of the deadline" [syn: blunt, crude(a), stark(a)]

2. severely simple; "a stark interior" [syn: austere, severe]

3. complete or extreme; "stark poverty"; "a stark contrast"

4. without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers; "an arrant fool"; "a complete coward"; "a consummate fool"; "a double-dyed villain"; "gross negligence"; "a perfect idiot"; "pure folly"; "what a sodding mess"; "stark staring mad"; "a thoroughgoing villain"; "utter nonsense" [syn: arrant(a), complete(a), consummate(a), double-dyed(a), everlasting(a), gross(a), perfect(a), pure(a), sodding(a), stark(a), staring(a), thoroughgoing(a), utter(a)]

5. 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" [syn: bare, barren, bleak, desolate]

adv. completely; "stark mad"; "mouth stark open"

Stark(e) may refer to:

Stark is a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the southeast of the prominent crater Tsiolkovskiy, and north of Subbotin.

This is a heavily eroded crater with a jumbled outer rim and uneven interior. The pair of slightly smaller satellite craters Stark Y and Stark V are attached to the northwest and western exterior respectively, creating a triple-crater formation. (The designations Homer for Stark Y and Sappho for Stark V were suggested for these features, but the IAU rejected these names.) Within the interior of Stark is a small crater located just to the south of the midpoint.

Stark is a 1989 novel by comedian Ben Elton. It was commercially and critically successful in the United Kingdom and Australia. It was Elton's first novel, and launched his writing career. Stark was reprinted 23 times in its first year, and ultimately sold well over a million copies, making Elton one of a small number of novelists to sell more than a million copies of his or her first book. The novel was adapted into Stark, a television miniseries.

It is a comedy with environmental themes. The comedy style has been compared with the literary works of Douglas Adams and Grant Naylor. It is set mainly in Australia, in a dystopian near-future, and the lead protagonist is an expat Englishman. The story is told from the point of view of a large number of characters, and the point of view often temporarily shifts to that of an animal. Much of the early plot takes place in Carlton, a fictional town south of Perth, Western Australia. Most of the rest of the novel takes place in Kalgoorkatta and Bullens Creek, in the Western Australian desert. The final scene takes place at an unspecified location in outer space, perhaps on the Moon.

Štark (full legal name: Soko Štark d.o.o. Beograd, pronounced Shtark) is a food manufacturing company located in Belgrade, Serbia. The main products of the company include candies, biscuits and chocolates. It is one of the most stable companies in Serbia, and has lived through some very turbulent times when it comes to politics and economics. One of its hallmark products is Najlepše Želje a chocolate bar that means "Best Wishes" in Serbian.

The Stark are a matriarchial purple-skinned alien species of warriors in the Earth-691 timeline of the fictional Marvel Universe. They are named for Anthony Stark, commonly known as Iron Man, on whose technology their society is based. Their society seems to be run by females. With female Starks holding higher ranks while the males in general are grunts. Overkill is an exception to this rule.

One of their most prominent members is called Overkill known formerly as Taserface, who personally fought the Guardians of the Galaxy to a stalemate.

Category:Iron Man

Stark is a 1993 British-Australian television miniseries, based on the bestselling novel Stark by comedian Ben Elton. The three-episode series, directed by Nadia Tass, was an international coproduction between the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It starred Ben Elton and Jacqueline McKenzie.

Stark and Starke are German and English surnames; in the German language stark means "strong" or "powerful". Notable people with the surname include: