stark naught, 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 tr. Wurtz' 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 or 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., But these influences..are stark naught to those [etc.]. |
† b. as n. 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. |