sterns

Noun (1)

stern (plural sterns)

1. The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel.
   • Holonyms: watercraft < vessel

   Synonyms:

   aft, poop

   Antonyms:

   bow, stem, forestem, fore, prow, prore

2. (figuratively) The post of management or direction.
   • and sit chiefest stern of public weal1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
3. The hinder part of anything.
4. The tail of an animal; now used only of the tail of a dog.
   • 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, [...]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 18, page 8

Noun (2)

stern (plural sterns)

1. A bird, the black tern, seabird.

See all 10 meanings of stern