stern
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: nautical
transport
Etymology: From Middle English stern, sterne, sturne, from Old English styrne (“stern, grave, strict, austere, hard, severe, cruel”), from Proto-Germanic *sturnijaz (“angry, astonished, shocked”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“rigid, stiff”). Cognate with Scots stern (“bold, courageous, fierce, resolute”), Old High German stornēn (“to be astonished”), Dutch stuurs (“glum, austere”), Swedish stursk (“insolent”).
Inflected forms:
form: sterner
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: sternest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: sterne
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sterns
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: sterne
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: sterns
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: sterning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: sterned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sterned
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sterne
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
pos: adj
examples: I haue beene wooed, as I intreat thee now, / Euen by the ſterne, and direfull God of warre, / VVhoſe ſinowie necke in battel nere did bow, / VVho conquers where he comes in euery iarre; […]
stern as tutors, and as uncles hard
Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.
gloss: Grim and forbidding in appearance.
pos: adj
examples: these barren rocks, your stern inheritance
gloss: The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel.
pos: noun
examples: Holonyms: watercraft < vessel
Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.
gloss: The post of management or direction.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: and sit chiefest stern of public weal
gloss: The hinder part of anything.
pos: noun
gloss: The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
pos: noun
examples: And all attonce her beaſtly bodie raizd / With doubled forces high aboue the ground: / Tho wrapping vp her wrethed ſterne arownd, / Lept fierce vpon his ſhield, [...]
gloss: To steer, to direct the course of (a ship).
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
obsolete
gloss: To propel or move backward or stern-first in the water.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
Synonyms: brutal
callous
cold
cold-eyed
cruel
dour
flint-hearted
forbidding
frosty
grim
hard
hard-boiled
hardened
hardhearted
heartless
harsh
humorless
icy
iron-hearted
insensate
insensitive
marble-hearted
rigorous
rockhearted
severe
stern
stonehearted
stony
stonyhearted
strict
tough
unsympathetic
unmoved
Antonyms: animated
cheerful
emotional
empathic
gregarious
kindly
lenient
soft
unstrict
vivacious
Related words: ghastly
mean
obstinate
resilient
rigid
ruthless
sinister
strong
sturdy
surly
taciturn
uncompassionate
unrelenting
cheerless
keel
aft
Derived words: sternity
sternly
sternness
stern plane
stern sex
stern sheets
stern-wheeler
astern
stem to stern
pink stern
square stern
sterncastle
stern chase
stern chaser
sterndrive
sternfast
sternforemost
stern frame
sternless
sternman
sternmost
sternpicker
sternport
sternpost
sternsheets
sternsman
sternward
sternwards
sternway
sternwheel
torpedo stern
tunnel stern
Translations: