a. Now rare or arch. [STARK adv. 2.] Utterly worthless or valueless; † utterly bad, vicious, hurtful, etc. (see NAUGHT a.).
a. 1543. Becon, David’s Harp, Wks. 1564, I. 150 b. He is none of those that say all is well, when altogyther is starke nought.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 20 b. But long vse of it, in the ende bringes the grounde to be starke nought.
1607. Lingua, II. i. Ah heres a youth starke naught at a trench, but old dog at a trencher.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse T., 78. No man can be starke naught at once. Let us stop the progresse of sin in our Soule at the first Stage.
1658. A. Fox, trans. Würtz’ Surg., III. xiii. 258. This abuse is partly committed, by stitching, which is stark nought to be used here.
1738. Swift, Pol. Conversat., II. 163. I have heard ’em say, that too good is stark naught.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, I. 213. But both [Letters] are stark naught, abominably bad. Ibid., II. 76. No, said he, I have been stark naught, and it is she, I hope, will be very forgiving.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 48. The self-same mode of procedure or … the self-same courts, are stark naught for a debt of 5l. 1s.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk. Bk. (1869), 43. All the good its students have done, as students, it is stark naught.
1882. Times, 6 Feb., 8/3. But these influences are stark naught to those [etc.].
† b. as sb. Something utterly worthless. Obs.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 105. But they [sc. plums] that ar litle ones and harde and harrish tarte ar sterk noughts.
