Forms: 2 stearclice, stercliche, 3 sterk-, stærc-, sterc-, starc-, starchliche, starliche, -lige, 5–6 starklie, (6 starkli, starckly, starkely), 4– starkly. [f. STARK a. + -LY2.]
† 1. Stoutly, boldly; strongly, powerfully; strenuously; harshly, sternly. Obs.
c. 1100. O. E. Chron. (MS. D.), an. 1016. Þa ʓewende se here to Lundenne & þa buruh utan ymbesæton & hyre stearclice on feaht æʓdær ʓe be wætere ʓe be lande.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 121. Summe þer weren þet his eȝan bundan and hine on þet neb mid heore hondan stercliche beoten.
c. 1205. Lay., 21178. Nu fusen we hom to, & stærcliche [c. 1275 starlige] heom leggen on.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 717. Þeos meiden … stod, þurh þeos steuene starcliche istrenget.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxiii. (Seven Sleepers), 128. & þai cane ete, to ma þame stark, confort to get to þat end, and in entent þat starklyare to thole þe torment.
c. 1480. Henryson, Test. Cress., 280. I say this by ȝone wretchit Cresseid, The quhilk … Me and my Mother starklie can reprufe.
1520. M. Nisbet, N. T. Scots, Acts xix. 20. So starkli the word of God waxit, and was confermyt.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 281. Bot his freindis advertissit thairof watchit starklie that night.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 305. The Castel of Dunbar starklie, and stoutlie suld be defendet with the ffrenche wappounes.
a. 1802. Jamie Telfer, xxviii. in Scott, Minstrelsy, I. 86. The Scots they rade, the Scots they ran, Sae starkly and sae steadilie.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xix. Was ever wight so starkly made But time and years would overthrow?
1900. C. Murray, Hamewith, 51. An’ starkly did he gie him ’t back.
2. Stiffly, rigidly.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 65. There be beastes, that wyll haue the goute … in the hynder fete, and it wyll cause them to halt, and go starkely.
1557. Phaër, Æneid, VII. (1558), V ij. And euery feeld with swordes vpright, As stubble starckly stands.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. ii. 70. Pro. Where’s Barnardine. Cla. As fast lock’d vp in sleepe, as guiltlesse labour, When it lies starkly in the Trauellers bones.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Starkly, stiffly.
1870. Bret Harte, Luck of Roaring Camp, 5. The low bunk … on which the figure of the mother was starkly outlined below the blankets.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxvii. 6. A corpse outstretch’d starkly.
b. Tightly, firmly.
1818. Byron, Mazeppa, xvi. With feeble effort still I tried To rend the bonds so starkly tied.
1820. Shelley, Hymn Merc., lxx. The withy bands, though starkly interknit, Fell at the feet of the immortal child.
3. Barely, nakedly.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp., lv. (1865), VII. 49. Many noble trees were stripped of their branches under the Cæsars as starkly as the Cæsars themselves.
1913. Neil Munro, in Blackw. Mag., Sept., 309/2. The place was starkly furnished, like a shipper’s box, except that in it was a soldier’s mattress.
