stern Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the rear part of a ship
    poop; quarter; after part; tail.
  2. noun United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920)
    Isaac Stern.
  3. noun the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
    bum; seat; keister; tail end; prat; bottom; rear end; buns; tail; tush; rump; fanny; ass; behind; tooshie; hind end; posterior; hindquarters; butt; nates; rear; arse; buttocks; backside; derriere; can; fundament.
    • he deserves a good kick in the butt
    • are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?
  4. adjective satellite of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect
    austere.
    • an austere expression
    • a stern face
  5. adjective satellite not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty
    unrelenting; inexorable; unappeasable; relentless; unforgiving; grim.
    • grim determination
    • grim necessity
    • Russia's final hour, it seemed, approached with inexorable certainty
    • relentless persecution
    • the stern demands of parenthood
  6. adjective satellite severe and unremitting in making demands
    strict; exacting.
    • an exacting instructor
    • a stern disciplinarian
    • strict standards
  7. adjective satellite severely simple
    severe; austere; stark.
    • a stark interior

WordNet

Stern noun
Etymology
AS. stearn a kind of bird. See Starling.
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) The black tern.
Stern adjective
Etymology
OE. sterne, sturne, AS. styrne; cf. D. stuurish stern, Sw. stursk refractory. *166.
Wordforms
comparative Sterner ; superlative Sternest
Definitions
  1. 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. Chaucer.
    I would outstare the sternest eyes that look. Shak.
    When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Shak.
    Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard. Dryden.
    These barren rocks, your stern inheritance. Wordsworth.
    Syn. -- Gloomy; sullen; forbidding; strict; unkind; hard-hearted; unfeeling; cruel; pitiless.
Stern noun
Etymology
Icel. stjorn a steering, or a doubtful AS. steórn. *166. See Steer, v. t.
Definitions
  1. The helm or tiller of a vessel or boat; also, the rudder. Obs. Chaucer.
  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. Shak.
  4. The hinder part of anything. Spenser.
  5. The tail of an animal; -- now used only of the tail of a dog.
Stern adjective
Definitions
  1. Being in the stern, or being astern; as, the stern davits.

Webster 1913