> as lemmas

a1300 Serm. (Trin. Cambr.) in Bull. Mod. Humanities Res. Assoc. (1928) 2 105 To bedde gon so nakid so þu were (borin).

a1475 Friar & Boy (Brogyntyn) in J. O. Halliwell Early Eng. Misc. (1855) 61 (MED) Ynto the strete to the play Anone they toke the ryȝt way, As nakyd as they wer bore.

c1515 Ld. Berners tr. Bk. Duke Huon of Burdeux (1882–7) l. 169 As naked as ever he was borne.

1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes f. 53^v Either of them as naked as ever they wer born.

1619 Two Wise Men & All Rest Fooles i. i. 8 I can be content to come to him as naked as ever I was born.

1742 H. Fielding Joseph Andrews I. i. xi. 65 There was a Man sitting upright as naked as ever he was born . View more context for this quotation

1776 W. J. Mickle tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad ix. 397 As fair Diana and her virgin train Some gayly ramble o'er the flowery plain,..And gliding through the distant glades display Each limb, each movement, naked as the day.

1826 J. F. Cooper Last of Mohicans II. vii. 120 They departed without food, without guns or knives, without moccasins, naked and poor, as they were born.

1872 ‘M. Twain’ Roughing It lxvii. 480 This man, naked as the day he was born, and war-club and spear in hand.

1900 J. Conrad Lord Jim xiv. 173 A boat..found him kneeling on the kelp, naked as the day he was born, and chanting some psalm-tune.

1975 T. Callender It so Happen 22 When after a coupla hours Joe wake up he find heself down there in that dark cold alley naked as he born.

1999 ‘Ai’ Vice 251 She runs down the road, throwing off her ragged clothes, as she goes, until she's as naked as the day she was born.