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stark-naked

[stahrk-ney-kid]
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adjective
  1. absolutely naked.

Origin of stark-naked

1520–30; stark + naked; replacing start-naked (start, Middle English; Old English steort tail; cognate with Dutch staart, Old High German sterz, Old Norse stertr)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for stark-naked

Historical Examples

  • When it rains they are covered by their mats, but, as they are all stark-naked, the rain can do them no harm.

    Great African Travellers

    W.H.G. Kingston

  • Some say that, during the ceremony, the women are stark-naked.

  • And in this wise they arose: stark-naked all of them, only their weapons in their hands.

  • The stark-naked men jumped along the route, waving their clubs, crying gutturally in a way the beasts seemed to understand.

  • On the contrary, the more he dwells on it, the more is he sensible of the danger—sees it in all its stark-naked reality.

British Dictionary definitions for stark-naked

stark-naked

adjective
  1. completely nakedInformal word: (postpositive) starkers (ˈstɑːkəz)

Word Origin

C13 stert naket, literally: tail naked; stert, from Old English steort tail; related to Old Norse stertr tail + naked
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012