These words mean devoid of clothing or of a usual covering. Bare , when applied to objects, means without covering or ornament: a bare outcropping of rock; a tree bare of leaves. When used of a person, bare usually applies to a part of the body rather than to the entire body: bare knees; bare arms and legs. By extension it is also used to indicate the omission of fancy trappings or non-essential adjuncts: Just give us the bare facts, without embellishment.

Naked , when applied to a person, means completely devoid of clothing. Naked is often invested with moral or emotional connotations, and may suggest sexual excitation or exhibitionism.

• The hotel fire caught them both naked; She couldn’t wear bikinis because the made her feel naked .

In other contexts, naked may suggest purity or innocence or simply be a neutral description: naked nymphs; naked children frolicking in the street; The body was naked when discovered. In the sense of bare , naked is also used about physical objects or forces generally for poetic effect or for emphasis: naked boughs; naked power; the naked truth.

Nude applies only to persons and may be neutral in connotation by itself, but its context ?sexual interest being what it is in modern society ?often makes it highly charged with emotional feeling. The noun nude denotes an unclothed figure in painting or sculpture and the association of the word with aesthetic appreciation often invests it with a kind of glamorous appeal lacking in naked . Nude has a more respectable tone than naked ; thus fashion writers can advertise some feminine clothing as having a nude look but dare not call it naked . For the same reason one speaks of sleeping in the nude , never naked .

Stripped literally means having been rendered bare , naked , or nude by some outside agency but it is often used figuratively to mean deprived: stripped of his medals for disobeying a commanding officer; stripped of all his privileges pending an official investigation.