Starker
[shtahr-ker]
- Ja·nos [yah-nawsh] /ˈyɑ nɔʃ/, 1924–2013, U.S. cellist, born in Hungary.
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stark
[stahrk]
- sheer, utter, downright, or complete: stark madness.
- harsh, grim, or desolate, as a view, place, etc.: a stark landscape.
- extremely simple or severe: a stark interior.
- bluntly or sternly plain; not softened or glamorized: the stark reality of the schedule's deadline.
- stiff or rigid in substance, muscles, etc.
- rigid in death.
- Archaic. strong; powerful; massive or robust.
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- utterly, absolutely, or quite: stark mad.
- Chiefly Scot. and North England. in a stark manner; stoutly or vigorously.
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Origin of stark
Synonym study
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for starker
Contemporary Examples
It was a bold, more overt, starker sense of humor level than they have had in the past.
Oscars Host Neil Patrick Harris on His Best and Worst Emcee Moments (VIDEO)Neil Patrick Harris
October 15, 2014
And we saw it this week in starker relief than we usually do.
The contrast with those entrusted with the campaign could not have been starker.
"There couldn't be a starker contrast," Axelrod said, slamming what he called Romney's "backwards-looking" approach.
The difference in approach has become all the starker as the financial crisis bites in the U.S.
Historical Examples
She had got another situation at Starker's, in the millinery department.
The Combined MazeMay Sinclair
And she had kept her job at Starker's, and meant to keep it for another year or so.
The Combined MazeMay Sinclair
On Monday he refrained from hanging round the door in Starker's iron shutter.
The Combined MazeMay Sinclair
He had a right to hang about Starker's, for he knew Miss Usher now.
The Combined MazeMay Sinclair
Violet's connection with Starker's ceased on the day of her marriage.
The Combined MazeMay Sinclair
stark
- (usually prenominal) devoid of any elaboration; bluntthe stark facts
- grim; desolatea stark landscape
- (usually prenominal) utter; absolutestark folly
- archaic severe; violent
- archaic, or poetic rigid, as in death (esp in the phrases stiff and stark, stark dead)
- short for stark-naked
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- completelystark mad
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Word Origin
Old English stearc stiff; related to Old Norse sterkr, Gothic gastaurknan to stiffen
Stark
- (stɑːk) Dame Freya (Madeline) (ˈfreɪə). 1893–1993, British traveller and writer, whose many books include The Southern Gates of Arabia (1936), Beyond Euphrates (1951), and The Journey's Echo (1963)
- (German ʃtark) Johannes (joˈhanəs). 1874–1957, German physicist, who discovered the splitting of the lines of a spectrum when the source of light is subjected to a strong electrostatic field (Stark effect, 1913): Nobel prize for physics 1919
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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 starker
stark
adj.
Old English stearc "stiff, strong" (related to starian "to stare"), from Proto-Germanic *starkaz (cf. Old Norse sterkr, Old Frisian sterk, Middle Dutch starc, Old High German starah, German stark, Gothic *starks), from PIE root *ster- "stiff, rigid" (see stare).
Meaning "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. Stark naked (1520s) is from Middle English start naked (early 13c.), from Old English steort "tail, rump." Hence British slang starkers "naked" (1923).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper