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Stem   /stɛm/   Listen
noun
Steem, Stem  n.  A gleam of light; flame. (Obs.)



Stem  n.  
1.
The principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind; the main stock; the part which supports the branches or the head or top. "After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem." "The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and breaded grain."
2.
A little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf with a main branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as, the stem of an apple or a cherry.
3.
The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. "All that are of noble stem." "While I do pray, learn here thy stem And true descent."
4.
A branch of a family. "This is a stem Of that victorious stock."
5.
(Naut.) A curved piece of timber to which the two sides of a ship are united at the fore end. The lower end of it is scarfed to the keel, and the bowsprit rests upon its upper end. Hence, the forward part of a vessel; the bow.
6.
Fig.: An advanced or leading position; the lookout. "Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years."
7.
Anything resembling a stem or stalk; as, the stem of a tobacco pipe; the stem of a watch case, or that part to which the ring, by which it is suspended, is attached.
8.
(Bot.) That part of a plant which bears leaves, or rudiments of leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly subterranean.
9.
(Zool.)
(a)
The entire central axis of a feather.
(b)
The basal portion of the body of one of the Pennatulacea, or of a gorgonian.
10.
(Mus.) The short perpendicular line added to the body of a note; the tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc.
11.
(Gram.) The part of an inflected word which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) throughout a given inflection; theme; base.
From stem to stern (Naut.), from one end of the ship to the other, or through the whole length.
Stem leaf (Bot.), a leaf growing from the stem of a plant, as contrasted with a basal or radical leaf.



verb
Stem  v. t.  
1.
To remove the stem or stems from; as, to stem cherries; to remove the stem and its appendages (ribs and veins) from; as, to stem tobacco leaves.
2.
To ram, as clay, into a blasting hole.



Stem  v. t.  (past & past part. stemmed; pres. part. stemming)  To oppose or cut with, or as with, the stem of a vessel; to resist, or make progress against; to stop or check the flow of, as a current. "An argosy to stem the waves." "(They) stem the flood with their erected breasts." "Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age."



Steem, Stem  v. i.  To gleam. (Obs.) "His head bald, that shone as any glass,... (And) stemed as a furnace of a leed (caldron)."



Stem  v. i.  To move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a current. "Stemming nightly toward the pole."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Stem" Quotes from Famous Books



... sympathy; and when one realizes the old President hemmed in once more by the hurrying tide of civilization, from which his people have fled for generations—trying to fight both fate and Nature—standing up to stem a tide as resistless as the eternal sea—one realizes the pathos of the picture. But this is as another generation may see it. We are now too close—so close that the meaner details, the blots and flaws, are all most plainly visible, the corruption, the insincerity, the injustice, the ...
— Native Races and the War • Josephine Elizabeth Butler

... well in my small way," Seaman admitted, fingering the stem of his wineglass, "but where I have had to plod, Sir Everard here has stood and commanded fate to pour her treasures ...
— The Great Impersonation • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... the beet-plant rises about four feet in height, with an angular, channelled stem; long, slender branches; and large, oblong, smooth, thick, and fleshy leaves. The flowers are small, green, and are either sessile, or produced on very short peduncles. The calyxes, before maturity, ...
— The Field and Garden Vegetables of America • Fearing Burr

... the porter a large rose, whose stem was carefully wrapped in paper. Christiano scarcely saw what it was, so dazzled were his eyes by the approaching glitter of a thousand sequins. But he thrust it in his bosom, drew the bolts of his prison, and disappeared ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach

... service (rendered). servile, slavish. servir, to be a slave, serve, be of use; — de, to serve as a, be a; que sert? what is the use? servitude, f; slavery. seul, alone. seulement, only, just. svre, severe, stem. sexe, m., sex, si, so, if, whether, sicle, m., century, age. signaler, to memorize, make famous. signer, to sign. simple, simple, mere; —s enfants, little children. sincre, sincere, faithful. Sion, Zion. sitt, so soon, so quickly. ...
— Esther • Jean Racine


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