stems

Noun

stem (plural stems)

1. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
   • Where ye may all that are of noble ſtemm / Approach, and kiſs her ſacred veſtures hemm.1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 55
2. A branch of a family.
   • This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
   1. A branch, or group of branches, located outside a family or other cladistic group, but which is more closely related to that group than to any other taxon of the same rank.
3. An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
   • Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
4. The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
   • After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem.1736, Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World in Five Books
5. A slender supporting member of an individual part of a plant such as a flower or a leaf; also, by analogy, the shaft of a feather.
   • the stem of an apple or a cherry

See all 29 meanings of stem