Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In ship-building, a piece between the stem and the chocks, also called independent piece. See cut under stem.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Drawing across her bow, he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful French taste, the upper part of her stem-piece was carved in the likeness of a huge drooping stalk, was painted green, and for thorns had copper spikes projecting from it here and there; the whole terminating in a symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red color.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • Astern of them was the picket-boat, a graceful feather of spray falling away on either side of the stem-piece.

    The Long Trick 1886-1967 Bartimeus 1926

  • Then, very slowly, as the slack water urged it, I saw the red stem-piece of a rather large boat nosing slowly forward apparently from the cliff-face towards the great rock immediately in front of it.

    Jim Davis John Masefield 1922

  • Dinsmore, according to the legend, had once lugged a hundred and sixty pounds to the Summit; McDonald had bent a horseshoe in his hands; Peterson had lifted the stem-piece out of a poling-boat lodged on the rocks below White Horse; Stick Jim had run down a moose and killed it with his knife.

    The Winds of Chance Rex Ellingwood Beach 1913

  • The much-esteemed stem-piece was from the butt of the smartest kind of a pasture oak.

    Sailing Alone Around the World Joshua Slocum 1877

  • The stem-piece and stern-post were set up, and gradually the frame began to assume the shape of a vessel.

    The Yacht Club or The Young Boat-Builder Oliver Optic 1859

  • The next steps were to set up the stern-post and the stem-piece, and Mr. Ramsay's patterns of these timbers were ready for use.

    The Yacht Club or The Young Boat-Builder Oliver Optic 1859

  • Drawing across her bow, he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful French taste, the upper part of her stem-piece was carved in the likeness of a huge drooping stalk, was painted green, and for thorns had copper spikes projecting from it here and there; the whole terminating in a symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red colour.

    Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855

  • Drawing across her bow, he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful French taste, the upper part of her stem-piece was carved in the likeness of a huge drooping stalk, was painted green, and for thorns had copper spikes projecting from it here and there; the whole terminating in a symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red color.

    Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855

  • Drawing across her bow, he perceived that in accordance with the fanciful French taste, the upper part of her stem-piece was carved in the likeness of a huge drooping stalk, was painted green, and for thorns had copper spikes projecting from it here and there; the whole terminating in a symmetrical folded bulb of a bright red color.

    Moby-Dick, or, The Whale 1851

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