Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. naked; also fig. use as lacking energy, means or supplies.

1546		J. Heywood Proverbs in Farmer (1906) I Ch. ix: There is nothing more vain, as yourself tell can, Than to beg a breech of a bare-arsed man.
1607		Rowlands Diogenes Lanthorne 35: Yet we thou seest goe bare-arse all, For each man to deride: I tell thee brother Asse I blush, To see mine owne backe-side.
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 3: To beg breeches of a bare-ars’t man.
1928		D.H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1960) 239: ‘[T]ha’rt [...] nowt but a bare-arsed lass an’ a bit of a Lady Jane!’ .
c.1930		(ref. to late 19C) N. Kimball Amer. Madam (1981) 92: .
1956		T. Anderson Your Own Beloved Sons 81: You going on that bare-arse patrol, up that valley? [...] Up that valley in two bare-arse jeeps.
1962		A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 73: ‘Ah effit,’ Willieboy sneered. ‘You bare-arsed bastard. You got nothing.’.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 123: But if they were so barearse, like you say, why did they send us to Greece at all?
1981		C. Hope Separate Development 151: ‘He’s a bloody Peeping Tom,’ the bare-arsed wonder yelled.

2. of a person, insignificant, second-rate.

1967

J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 15: No wonder you’re still a bare-arsed A.B. with that low intelligence.

3. (con. 1970s) (Aus.) in fig. use, undiluted, full-strength.

2013

D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] Not much appeared to have changed since the days when Swann and Marion had gone out to see bands in the era of bare-arsed rock’n’roll.