What is "starkness"

Usage examples of "starkness".

But Dot, being Dot, forged on, distracting him with her usual insistence until some of the starkness eased in his eyes.

His face was etched with strain, and there was a starkness in his eyes that made her heart twist.

All that relieved the starkness was the Altar of the Plough at the eastern end of the hall, a massively oversized metal casting of the Plough itself where young couples gathered to be married, children stood to be admitted into the circle of its safety, and the old were laid out to be farewelled with prayers to their graves.

Overall, the interlace of pink plasteline strips and daubs both softened the starkness of her skull and made it as gruesome as a death mask.

Over­all, the interlace of pink plasteline strips and daubs both softened the starkness of her skull and made it as grue­some as a death mask.

These say little more about her than that she was twenty Terran years of age, born and raised amidst the starknesses of the planet Vixen, winning appointment to the Foundry, doing well as a cadet, newly commissioned and assigned to energy weapons control aboard the light battleship Zeta Sagitarii.

Not a single flower or decorative plant offset the starkness of the setting, except for wisteria vines and bougainvillea bushes, which had gone wild, and a tupelo tree near the front porch and several oaks in the back near a small bayou about a hundred yards from the house.

Its beauty--of a different kind--excited Andrew too: the starkness, the simplicity, the airless static unchangeability of it.