naked
[ney-kid]
- being without clothing or covering; nude: naked children swimming in the lake.
- without adequate clothing: a naked little beggar.
- bare of any covering, overlying matter, vegetation, foliage, or the like: naked fields.
- bare, stripped, or destitute (usually followed by of): The trees were suddenly naked of leaves.
- without the customary covering, container, or protection: a naked sword; a naked flame.
- without carpets, hangings, or furnishings, as rooms or walls.
- (of the eye, sight, etc.) unassisted by a microscope, telescope, or other instrument: visible to the naked eye.
- defenseless; unprotected; exposed: naked to invaders.
- plain; simple; unadorned: the naked realities of the matter.
- not accompanied or supplemented by anything else: a naked outline of the facts.
- exposed to view or plainly revealed: the naked threat in the letter; a naked vein of coal.
- plain-spoken; blunt: the naked truth.
- Law. unsupported, as by authority or consideration: a naked promise.
- Botany.
- (of seeds) not enclosed in an ovary.
- (of flowers) without a calyx or perianth.
- (of stalks, branches, etc.) without leaves.
- (of stalks, leaves, etc.) without hairs or pubescence.
- Zoology. having no covering of hair, feathers, shell, etc.
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Origin of naked
before 900; Middle English naked(e), Old English nacod; cognate with Dutch naakt, German nackt, Gothic naqths; akin to Old Norse nakinn, Latin nūdus, Greek gymnós, Sanskrit nagnás
Synonyms
See more synonyms for naked on Thesaurus.com1. uncovered, undressed, unclothed. 4. denuded. 5. unsheathed, exposed. 6. unfurnished. 8. unarmed, open. 11. manifest, evident, undisguised. 12. direct, outspoken.
Antonyms
1. dressed. 8. protected.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for half-naked
Contemporary Examples
Barba offered me a line of cocaine as we sat on his bunk bed covered by posters of musicians and half-naked women.
Cocaine, Politicians and Wives: Inside the World’s Most Bizarre PrisonJason Batansky
October 12, 2014
Later, in 2003, pictures of a half-naked Smart—taken in prison—were published in The National Enquirer.
They are everywhere on television: dripping wet, heavy-breathing, half-naked men.
The red-band trailer for Magic Mike has already gone viral, with all the shots of half-naked McConaughey and Bomer.
Magnotta plastered pictures of his own half-naked body all over the Internet.
Historical Examples
It was as much as any Spaniard could do to tell one half-naked Indian from another.
The Trail BookMary Austin
Without losing her calm, she lay down, half-naked, with her hair loose.
Therese RaquinEmile Zola
The snow was in his scant hair and in the hollow of his wide, half-naked chest.
Other Main-Travelled RoadsHamlin Garland
The snow was in his scant hair and in the hollow of his vast, half-naked chest.
Prairie FolksHamlin Garland
That is not the case with naked savages or half-naked barbarians.
FolkwaysWilliam Graham Sumner
half-naked
- partially clotheda half-naked body
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naked
- having the body completely unclothed; undressedCompare bare 1
- having no covering; bare; exposeda naked flame
- with no qualification or concealment; stark; plainthe naked facts
- unaided by any optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope (esp in the phrase the naked eye)
- with no defence, protection, or shield
- (usually foll by of) stripped or destitutenaked of weapons
- (of the seeds of gymnosperms) not enclosed in a pericarp
- (of flowers) lacking a perianth
- (of stems) lacking leaves and other appendages
- (of animals) lacking hair, feathers, scales, etc
- law
- unsupported by authority or financial or other considerationa naked contract
- lacking some essential condition to render valid; incomplete
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Word Origin
Old English nacod; related to Old High German nackot (German nackt), Old Norse noktr, Latin nudus
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
Word Origin and History for half-naked
naked
adj.
Old English nacod "nude, bare; empty," also "not fully clothed," from Proto-Germanic *nakwathaz (cf. Old Frisian nakad, Middle Dutch naket, Dutch naakt, Old High German nackot, German nackt, Old Norse nökkviðr, Old Swedish nakuþer, Gothic naqaþs "naked"), from PIE root *nogw- "naked" (cf. Sanskrit nagna, Hittite nekumant-, Old Persian *nagna-, Greek gymnos, Latin nudus, Lithuanian nuogas, Old Church Slavonic nagu-, Russian nagoi, Old Irish nocht, Welsh noeth "bare, naked"). Related: Nakedly; nakedness. Applied to qualities, actions, etc., from late 14c. (first in "The Cloud of Unknowing"); phrase naked truth is from 1585, in Alexander Montgomerie's "The Cherry and the Slae":
Which thou must (though it grieve thee) grant
I trumped never a man.
But truely told the naked trueth,
To men that meld with mee,
For neither rigour, nor for rueth,
But onely loath to lie.
[Montgomerie, 1585]
Phrase naked as a jaybird (1943) was earlier naked as a robin (1879, in a Shropshire context); the earliest known comparative based on it was naked as a needle (late 14c.). Naked eye is from 1660s, unnecessary in the world before telescopes and microscopes.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
naked
[nā′kĭd]
- Zoology Lacking outer covering such as scales, fur, feathers, or a shell.
- Botany
- Lacking a pericarp, as the seeds of the pine.
- Lacking a perianth, as the flowers of spurge.
- Unprotected by scales, as a bud.
- Having no leaves, as a branch or stem.
- Having no covering of fine, hairlike structures, as a stalk or leaf; glabrous.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.