starknessn.

OE tr. Chrodegang of Metz Regula Canonicorum (Corpus Cambr. 191) lii. 281 Ne wene nan man þæt an reafes oferflowennysse and creasnysse synn ne beo; for þam gif þæran syn nære, nateshwon ure drihten Iohannem herian wolde be his reafes stearcnysse [L. asperitate].

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 57 (MED) By spasme vnderstondeþ Aueroys decurtacioun of membrez of sich starknez [L. rigidationem] þat þay mowe noȝt be bowed.

c1484 (a1475) J. de Caritate tr. Secreta Secret. (Takamiya) (1977) 147 (MED) The tokynys of a febyl stomak and of febyl dygestyon be þise: slugynes of þe body and starkenes, [etc.].

1544 Bk. Chyldren in T. Phaer tr. J. Goeurot Regiment of Lyfe (new ed.) sig. c.vii^v (heading) Of the styfnes or starknes of lymmes.

1627 R. Bernard Guide Grand-iury Men i. ii. 17 With a generall starknesse and stiffenesse.

1846 R. C. Trench Notes Miracles xxvii. 362 The stiffness and starkness, the unnatural rigescence of the limbs in the accesses of the disorder.

1892 C. Rossetti Face of Deep xxii. 532 Night for the dead in their stiffness and starkness!

a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1926) I. 129 Crist, that was of infynit starknes.

a1550 Goldin Latany in J. A. W. Bennett Devotional Pieces (1955) 207 Thy gud deidis and sterknes that thou had quhen thow resistit thi innomes.

c1600 W. Fowler tr. N. Machiavelli Prince in Wks. (1936) II. 117 The greatnes and sterknes of hart and curage.

1544 P. Betham tr. J. di Porcia Preceptes Warre i. lxxvii. sig. E j^v His souldiours..were wyllynge to fyght, fastyng and undyned: wherby the mooste parte of them clunged for colde, was rather by starknesse of meat, than by y^e violence of theyr enemies slayne [L. omnes pene magis frigore quam hostium armis oppugnati fuere].

1616 J. Lane Contin. Squire's Tale (Douce 170) (1888) vi. 76 So tooke hee order how his campe and shipps shoold bee revictualld, ear them starcnes nipps.

1641 J. Milton Animadversions 36 How should wee have yeelded to his heavenly call, had we beene taken, as they were, in the starknes of our ignorance.

1849 H. Rogers Ess. (1860) III. 252 Those legislative pedants..who would propose to give New Zealanders and Hottentots in the starkness of their savage ignorance, the complex forms of the British Constitution.

1960 A. M. Gollin Observer & J. L. Garvin xii. 408 If they could make their resistance even more pronounced, if they could bring home to the electorate in England the starkness of their resolve, they might yet win out.

1974 Fortnight 22 Mar. 15/1 By the starkness of its implied judgment it demands an end to half measures which are merely symptomatic cures.

2013 L. Pristas Collects of Rom. Missals iii. 43 The power of the prayer lies in its directness, its simplicity, its confidence—and in the starkness of our need.

1824 Congregational Mag. Mar. 154 The man is overlooked in his dress... So captivated is the world, now with eloquence and grace, that even infidelity and atheism, which in their proper starkness, revolt human nature..are not only tolerated but admired and applauded.

1896 ‘Iota’ Quaker Grandmother 101 It would go hard with her before that thought, with anything of the starkness of fact about it, could so much as enter into her mind.

1929 Joplin (Missouri) Globe 29 Dec. 17/1 It laid a coverlet of snow across the ground on either side to provide a background that would emphasize all the more the starkness of the trees.

1964 W. C. Putnam Geol. x. 249/1 Soil cover serves to alleviate the starkness of a rock-dominated landscape.

1999 S. Orbach Impossibility of Sex (2000) 137 There was no way to ameliorate the starkness of her words.

2009 D. Bate Photography vi. 119 A drop or bead of water in the foreground or an out-of-focus flower, for example, can be used to alleviate the starkness of a background.

1884 M. Creighton in Macmillan's Mag. Sept. 327/1 He [sc. William I] let men feel his starkness by his remorseless harrying of the north.

1914 Marion (Iowa) Reg. 24 Feb. They hold that the father is an absorbed, austere man, his starkness covered by an overlay of artificial indulgence to his son.