Princeton's WordNet(1.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. stern, after part, quarter, poop, tail(noun)

   the rear part of a ship

2. Stern, Isaac Stern(noun)

   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, ass(adj)

   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, stern(adj)

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

   "an austere expression"; "a stern face"

5. grim, inexorable, relentless, stern, unappeasable, unforgiving, unrelenting(adj)

   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, exacting(adj)

   severe and unremitting in making demands

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

7. austere, severe, stark, stern(adj)

   severely simple

   "a stark interior"

Wiktionary(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. stern(Noun)

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

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

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

1. Stern(noun)

   the black tern

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

3. Stern(verb)

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

4. Stern(verb)

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

5. Stern(verb)

   fig.: The post of management or direction

6. Stern(verb)

   the hinder part of anything

7. Stern(verb)

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

8. Stern(adj)

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

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

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)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.]

Anagrams for stern »

1. Nerts

2. Rents

3. Terns

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

Sample Sentences & Example Usage

1. Leonardo DaVinci:

   Every obstacle yields to stern resolve.

2. Saint Teresa of Avila:

   Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.

3. Teresa of Ávila:

   Be gentle to all, and stern with yourself.

4. Letitia Elizabeth Landon:

   Life has one vast stern likeness in its gloom

5. Edmund Spenser:

   A stern discipline pervades all nature, which is a little cruel that it may be very kind.

Images & Illustrations of stern

Popularity rank by frequency of use