naked

slang Entirely nude, especially in others' view. Possibly a variation of "buck naked," though both mean the same and are correct in use. My roommate is so embarrassing, always walking around the house butt naked!

Partially undressed. The phrase is sometimes used hyperbolically by someone who considers another's attire not conservative enough. Thinking only my mom was outside, I came out of the dressing room half-naked and, to my horror, saw some older girls from school. You can't wear shorts like that to church, you look half-naked! Go change right now!

Cliché naked; bare. (*Also: as ~.) Two-year-old Matilda escaped from her nurse, who was bathing her, and ran out naked as a jaybird into the dining room. Uncle John sometimes spends a whole day walking around his house as naked as a jaybird.

the human eye, unassisted by optics, such as a telescope, microscope, or spectacles. (*Typically: appear to ~; look to ~; see with ~; visible to~.) I can't see the bird's markings with the naked eye. The scientist could see nothing in the liquid with the naked eye, but with the aid of a microscope, she identified the bacteria. That's how it appears to the naked eye.

the complete, unembellished truth. Sorry to put it to you like this, but it's the naked truth. I can take it. Just tell me the naked truth.

with eyes that are not aided by telescopes, microscopes, or binoculars. The moon is quite visible with the naked eye. Bacteria are too small to be seen with the naked eye.

completely naked I got a shock when I saw her sitting buck naked, drink in hand, watching TV.

completely naked He walked into the room stark naked.

Bare, unclothed, as in I came straight out of the shower, naked as a jaybird. This simile replaced the 19th-century naked as a robin and is equally unclear, since neither bird is normally stripped of its feathers. Further, the bird it refers to is more often called simply "jay" rather than "jaybird," yet the latter is always part of the simile. [c. 1940]

Sight unassisted by an instrument such as a microscope or telescope. For example, These insects are too small to be seen with the naked eye. This expression was first recorded in 1664.

Plain unadorned facts, without concealment or embellishment. For example, What I've told you is the naked truth. This expression supposedly alludes to a fable in which Truth and Falsehood went bathing, Falsehood then dressed in Truth's clothes, and Truth, refusing to take another's clothes, went naked. [Late 1500s]

Stark naked. Why, of all ornithological species, should a jaybird be singled out for its nudity? One explanation is that “jay” was a 19th-century word for a country bumpkin, and since bumpkins were vulnerable to the wiles of others, a jaybird would be vulnerable indeed.