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Stern   /stərn/   Listen
adjective
Stern  adj.  (compar. sterner; superl. sternest)  Having a certain hardness or severity of nature, manner, or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree. "The sterne wind so loud gan to rout." "I would outstare the sternest eyes that look." "When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff." "Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard." "These barren rocks, your stern inheritance."
Synonyms: Gloomy; sullen; forbidding; strict; unkind; hard-hearted; unfeeling; cruel; pitiless.


Stern  adj.  Being in the stern, or being astern; as, the stern davits.
Stern board (Naut.), a going or falling astern; a loss of way in making a tack; as, to make a stern board. See Board, n., 8 (b).
Stern chase. (Naut.)
(a)
See under Chase, n.
(b)
A stern chaser.
Stern chaser (Naut.), a cannon placed in a ship's stern, pointing backward, and intended to annoy a ship that is in pursuit.
Stern fast (Naut.), a rope used to confine the stern of a ship or other vessel, as to a wharf or buoy.
Stern frame (Naut.), the framework of timber forms the stern of a ship.
Stern knee. See Sternson.
Stern port (Naut.), a port, or opening, in the stern of a ship.
Stern sheets (Naut.), that part of an open boat which is between the stern and the aftmost seat of the rowers, usually furnished with seats for passengers.
Stern wheel, a paddle wheel attached to the stern of the steamboat which it propels.


noun
Stern  n.  (Zool.) The black tern.


Stern  n.  
1.
The helm or tiller of a vessel or boat; also, the rudder. (Obs.)
2.
(Naut.) The after or rear end of a ship or other vessel, or of a boat; the part opposite to the stem, or prow.
3.
Fig.: The post of management or direction. "And sit chiefest stern of public weal."
4.
The hinder part of anything.
5.
The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
By the stern. (Naut.) See By the head, under By.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Stern" Quotes from Famous Books



... dignified and logical garment. It clothed with equal charity a man's stomach and his stern. Generous of its skirts, which went far to conceal wrinkled trousers, it could be worn with a light tie at a formal dinner or with a dark tie at a studio tea, and was equally appropriate at a funeral or a wedding. For all ...
— A Daughter of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland
... child: I call myself a boy,' Says my king, with accent stern yet mild, Now nine years have brought him change ...
— A Century of Roundels • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... pestilence, as well as by the weapons of the defenders of Acre. The hearts of all men were quickly sinking. The Turkish fleet was at hand to reinforce Djezzar; and upon the utter failure of the attack of the 21st of May, Napoleon yielded to stern necessity, and ...
— The History of Napoleon Buonaparte • John Gibson Lockhart
... political and religious bias of either school. The Realists were chiefly supported by the Dominicans, the Nominalists by the Franciscans; and there is always a more gentle expression beaming in the eyes of the followers of the seraphic Doctor, particularly if contrasted with the stern frown of the Dominican. Ockam himself was a Franciscan, and those who thought with him were called doctores renovatores and sophistae. Suddenly, however, the tables were turned. At Oxford, the Realists, in following out their principles in a more independent ...
— Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. • F. Max Mueller
... Warren sailed from Manila bound for San Francisco. The first day out from Manila, late in the evening when supper was eaten, I ate very heartily, and went on duty in the stern of the transport. The sea was rough, and gave the transport a rolling motion. Shortly after going on duty my head commenced swimming, and I was ill. A soldier told me that I was sea-sick. I had never been sea-sick and knew nothing about how a person felt. At last I vomited freely, ...
— A Soldier in the Philippines • Needom N. Freeman


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