Also 6 starck, 6–7 sterk. [OE. stearcian, f. stearc STARK a. Cf. OHG. starcên to become strong.]
† 1. intr. To become stiff or rigid; to coagulate, solidify. Obs.
c. 1000. Gloss. Prud., in Germania (1878), XI. 402/56. Riget, stearcode.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1845. Þe stormes starked wit þe wind.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 149. Les nerfs de bewor engurdisst [gloss] starken.
14[?]. Pol., Rel., & L. Poems, (1903), 250. Wonne … þin hew dunnet: and þi sennewess starket.
c. 1530. Judic. Urines, II. vi. 27. It causeth rigor Anglice starkyng and racchyng for colde.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Hymn of Alms, 185, Wks. (Grosart), II. 210. To stark for Cold, to starve for Food.
2. trans. To make stiff. arch.
1862. Sir H. Taylor, St. Clement’s Eve, V. v. Wks. 1864, III. 198. Arise, if horror have not stark’d your limbs.
† 3. To strengthen, make stout or strong. Obs.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, XI. 892. And Iohn Wallang, was than schyreff off Fyff, Till Wallace past, starkyt him in that stryff.
1562. Turner, Baths, 8. This bath … sterketh and streingtheneth verye muche the broken place.
Hence † Starked ppl. a., hardened, stiffened.
c. 1425. Lydg., Horse, Goose & Sheep, 388. It … Causith men starkid bonys to recure; Dede synnewis restorith a-geyn to live.
