Na'ked. adj. [nacoꝺ, Saxon.]
- Wanting cloaths; uncovered; bare.
A philosopher being asked in what a wise man differed from a fool? answered, send them both naked to those who know them not, and you shall perceive. Bacon, Apophth. 242.
He pitying how they stood
Before him naked to the air, that now
Must suffer change;
As father of his family, he clad
Their nakedness with skins of beasts. Milton, P. Lost.Ungrateful men,
Behold my bosom naked to your swords,
And let the man that's injur'd strike the blow. Addison. - Unarmed; defenceless; unprovided.
Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal
I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age
Have left we naked to mine enemies. Shakes. Henry VIII. - Plain; evident; not hidden.
The truth appears so naked on my side,
That any purblind eye may find it out. Shakes. Hen. VI. - Mere; bare; wanting the necessary additions; simple; abstracted.
Not that God doth require nothing unto happiness at the hands of men, saving only a naked belief, for hope and charity we may not exclude; but that without belief all other things are as nothing, and it is the ground of those other divine virtues. Hooker, b. i. p. 37.