stern

1. 1

   Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.

   • stern sex
2. 2

   Grim and forbidding in appearance.

   • The remark earned me a stern rebuke.

syn. brutal · callous · cold · insensate · hardhanded · cold-eyed · cruel · dour · thick-skinned · flint-hearted · forbidding · frosty

ant. animated · cheerful · emotional · empathic · gregarious · kindly · lenient · soft

1. 1

   The rear part (after end) of a ship or other vessel.

   • Holonyms: watercraft < vessel
2. 2

   The post of management or direction.figuratively

   • and sit chiefest stern of public weal
3. 3

   The hinder part of anything.

4. 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, [...]

1. 1

   To steer, to direct the course of (a ship).ambitransitiveobsolete

2. 2

   To propel or move backward or stern-first in the water.ambitransitive

1. 1

   A bird, the black tern, seabird.