Meanings
- archaicslanguncountableRaw gin.
"Give us a glass of 'stark naked,' Job! This plaguey fog's well nigh choked me," said Rube, spluttering and coughing, and vituperating it.
1870, Langford Cecil, Fenacre Grange, page 15Synonyms: strip me naked
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveCompletely naked.
nounRaw gin.
More synonyms by meaning
adjective(used informally) completely unclothed
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Old Englishsteort“tail”
- Middle Englishstert naked
- Englishstark naked
From Middle English stert naked (steort nakt, sternaked, star naked); the first element is from Old English steort (“tail”). The change from "start-naked" to "stark-naked" was most likely by folk etymology due to a misinterpretation of the phrase as being a way of saying "starkly naked" ("strongly naked, harshly naked"). The opposite change has shifted buck naked to butt naked in colloquial modern English.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian чисто гол
- чисто гол (čisto gol)completely naked
Catalan conill
- conillcompletely naked
Chinese Mandarin 赤裸裸, 全裸
- 赤裸裸 (chìluǒluǒ)completely naked
- 全裸 (quánluǒ)completely naked
Finnish ilkosillaan, ilkosen alasti
- ilkosillaancompletely naked
- ilkosen alasticompletely naked
- ilkialasticompletely naked
French à poil
- à poilcompletely naked
German splitternackt, splitterfasernackt
- splitternacktcompletely naked
- splitterfasernacktcompletely naked
- fasernacktcompletely naked
Indonesian telanjang bulat
- telanjang bulatcompletely naked
Irish tarnocht
- tarnochtcompletely naked
Japanese 真っ裸, 素っ裸
- 真っ裸 (mappadaka)completely naked
- 素っ裸 (suppadaka)completely naked
- 全裸 (zenra)completely naked
Portuguese à pai Adão
- à pai Adãocompletely naked
Romanian gol nap, gol pușcă
- gol napcompletely naked
- gol pușcăcompletely naked
- gol ca degetulcompletely naked
Spanish en pelotas, en cueros vivos
- en pelotascompletely naked
- en cueros vivoscompletely naked
- en bolascompletely naked
Swedish spritt språngande naken
- spritt språngande nakencompletely naked
Welsh noethlymun
- noethlymuncompletely naked
Cite this entry
stark naked. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stark%20naked
“stark naked.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stark%20naked. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stark naked,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stark%20naked.
Source: stark naked on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.