providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"
If two things are in stark contrast to one another, they are very different from each other in a way that is very obvious. secret cooperation between London and Washington that was in stark contrast to official policy. + starkly stark·ly The outlook now is starkly different