a. [prob. orig. STARK a. (sense 4); afterwards taken as STARK adv. 2.] Quite dead. lit. and fig.
a. 1375. Joseph Arim., 567. [He] Baar him doun of his hors and … strok him stark ded þat he sturede neuere.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 105. Stark ded, his armes sprad, sche syh Hire lord flietende upon the wawe.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XXI. iv. 847. Therwythall syr Mordred fyl starke deed to the erthe.
a. 1595. R. Southwell, Hundred Medit. (1873), 221. The soul … waxeth cold, and proud, and stark dead … when it is deprived of this Thy holy love.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 420. When I came, I found the man starke dead.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Damps, The Maid going down to call her Master, found them all in their digging Postures: but stark dead.
† b. of night. Obs.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. i. Tis now starke deade night.
