Definitions for stern
stɜrnstern

Wiktionary(3.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. sternnoun

   The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.

   Etymology: From stern, sterne, sturne, from styrne, from sturnijaz, from ster-. Cognate with stern, stornen, stuurs, stursk.

Princeton's WordNet(3.00 / 4 votes)Rate this definition:

1. stern, after part, quarter, poop, tailnoun

   the rear part of a ship

2. Stern, Isaac Sternnoun

   United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920)

3. buttocks, nates, arse, butt, backside, bum, buns, can, fundament, hindquarters, hind end, keister, posterior, prat, rear, rear end, rump, stern, seat, tail, tail end, tooshie, tush, bottom, behind, derriere, fanny, assadjective

   the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on

   "he deserves a good kick in the butt"; "are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?"

4. austere, sternadjective

   of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect

   "an austere expression"; "a stern face"

5. grim, inexorable, relentless, stern, unappeasable, unforgiving, unrelentingadjective

   not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty

   "grim determination"; "grim necessity"; "Russia's final hour, it seemed, approached with inexorable certainty"; "relentless persecution"; "the stern demands of parenthood"

6. stern, strict, exactingadjective

   severe and unremitting in making demands

   "an exacting instructor"; "a stern disciplinarian"; "strict standards"

7. austere, severe, stark, sternadjective

   severely simple

   "a stark interior"

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Sternnoun

   the black tern

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

2. Stern

   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

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

3. Sternverb

   the helm or tiller of a vessel or boat; also, the rudder

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

4. Sternverb

   the after or rear end of a ship or other vessel, or of a boat; the part opposite to the stem, or prow

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

5. Sternverb

   fig.: The post of management or direction

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

6. Sternverb

   the hinder part of anything

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

7. Sternverb

   the tail of an animal; -- now used only of the tail of a dog

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

8. Sternadjective

   being in the stern, or being astern; as, the stern davits

   Etymology: [Icel. stjrn a steering, or a doubtful AS. stern. 166. See Steer, v. t.]

Freebase(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Stern

   The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section of the ship, but eventually came to refer to the entire back of a vessel. The stern end of a ship is indicated with a white navigation light at night. Sterns on European and American wooden sailing ships began with two principal forms: the square or transom stern and the elliptical, fantail, or merchant stern, and were developed in that order. The hull sections of a sailing ship located before the stern are composed of a series of U-shaped rib-like frames set in a sloped or "cant" arrangement, with the last frame before the stern being called the fashion timber or fashion piece, so called for "fashioning" the after part of the ship. This frame is designed to support the various beams that make up the stern. In 1817 the British naval architect Sir Robert Seppings first introduced the concept of the round or circular stern. The square stern had been an easy target for enemy cannon, and could not support the weight of heavy stern chase guns. But Seppings' design left the rudder head exposed, and was regarded by many as simply ugly—no American warships were designed with such sterns, and the round stern was quickly superseded by the elliptical stern. The United States began building the first elliptical stern warship in 1820, a decade before the British. The USS Brandywine became the first sailing ship to sport such a stern. Though a great improvement over the transom stern in terms of its vulnerability to attack when under fire, elliptical sterns still had obvious weaknesses which the next major stern development—the iron-hulled cruiser stern—addressed far better and with much different materials.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Stern

   stėrn, adj. severe of countenance, manner, or feeling: austere: harsh: unrelenting: steadfast.—adv. Stern′ly.—n. Stern′ness. [A.S. styrne.]

2. Stern

   stėrn, n. the hind-part of a vessel: the rump or tail of an animal.—v.t. to back a boat, to row backward.—ns. Stern′age (Shak.), the steerage or stern of a ship; Stern′board, backward motion of a ship: loss of way in tacking; Stern′-chase, a chase in which one ship follows directly in the wake of another; Stern′-chās′er, a cannon in the stern of a ship.—adj. Sterned, having a stern of a specified kind.—ns. Stern′-fast, a rope or chain for making fast a ship's stern to a wharf, &c.; Stern′-frame, the sternpost, transoms, and fashion-pieces of a ship's stern.—adj. Stern′most, farthest astern.—ns. Stern′port, a port or opening in the stern of a ship; Stern′post, the aftermost timber of a ship which supports the rudder; Stern′sheets, the part of a boat between the stern and the rowers; Stern′son, the hinder extremity of a ship's keelson, to which the sternpost is bolted; Stern′way, the backward motion of a vessel; Stern′-wheel′er (U.S.), a small vessel with one large paddle-wheel at the stern. [Ice. stjórn, a steering.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. stern

   The after-part of a ship, ending in the taffarel above and the counters below.--By the stern. The condition of a vessel which draws more water abaft than forward.

Matched Categories

1. • Rear
   • Violinist

Anagrams for stern »

1. Nerts

2. Rents

3. Terns

How to pronounce stern?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say stern in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of stern in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of stern in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of stern in a Sentence

1. Mulana Khalil Saqib:

   This Iranian group has been involved in militant activities and innocent killings of Sunni Muslims. We do have demands to wipe off this Iranian group from GB because they have created unrest, their unending sectarian violence has caused us to fight back for our rights. We want the Pakistan government to plan stern action against them.

2. Henry Stern:

   Stern – a former teacher – said one-third of all California teachers quit before their fifthyear because of the financial hardships placed on them due to low pay and the state’s high cost of living. You're not going to be able to get paid $ 50,000 a year and go live in the Bay Area, go teach at the local school.... we think it's a pretty creative tool, we'll see how the fiscal conservatives in this house want to approach this.

3. Recruit Hardy:

   He was so stern. A man of his word, he'd come home and tell us about what he'd witness out there. He was the only African-American sergeant in the department and was able to overcome the challenges. He instilled good values and I looked up to that.

4. Takashi Kawakami:

   Ms. Inada is an ultra-conservative politician and this will be taken as preparation for achieving constitutional revision and adopting a stern stance toward China.

5. Donald Trump:

   The record shows that I’m right, when I did an interview with Howard Stern, very lightly, first time anyone’s asked me that, I said, very lightly, ‘I don’t know, maybe, who knows?’ essentially. I then did an interview with Neil Cavuto. We talked about the economy is more important [than going to war].

Images & Illustrations of stern

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