Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb & adjective Behind a vessel.
  • adverb & adjective At or to the stern of a vessel.
  • adverb & adjective With or having the stern foremost; backward.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • At or toward the hinder part of a ship: as, to go astern.
  • Behind, at any indefinite distance: as, the ship was far astern of us.
  • In the direction of the stern; backward; back; to the rear: said of a ship: as, the current drove us far astern.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb (Naut.) In or at the hinder part of a ship; toward the hinder part, or stern; backward.
  • adverb Behind a ship; in the rear.
  • adverb to go stern foremost.
  • adverb to be behind the position given by the reckoning.
  • adverb to fall or be left behind.
  • adverb to go backward, as from the action of currents or winds.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb nautical Beyond the stern when viewed from aboard.
  • adjective nautical behind

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb (of a ship or an airplane) behind
  • adverb stern foremost or backward
  • adverb at or near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

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Examples

  • "Glad to hear it," returned the other, who could read our name astern as she lay athwart us.

    The Ghost Ship A Mystery of the Sea Henry [Illustrator] Austin

  • I demanded: but the next moment I heard his call astern and knew that, monkey-like, he had got her over and was aboard her somehow.

    The Lady and the Pirate Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive Emerson Hough 1890

  • 'midship-house, and Charles Davis lies about him nursing a marlin-spike, and Christian Jespersen, miles astern, is deep sunk in the sea with a sack of coal at his feet.

    CHAPTER XVI 2010

  • 'midship-house, and Charles Davis lies about him nursing a marlin - spike, and Christian Jespersen, miles astern, is deep sunk in the sea with a sack of coal at his feet.

    Chapter 16 1914

  • By all rules of tactical common-sense it would seem that the other ships should have taken their distance from their next astern, that is, should have closed toward the centre.

    The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 1877

  • The rudder is gone, and we have sprung a leak astern which is more than we can stop.

    Armadale 2003

  • Only a very few of these, of course, lay anywhere near the city's direct line - of flight-indeed, many of them were scattered "astern" (that is, under the keel of the city), in the imaginary - hemisphere on the other side of his home Sun.

    Cities In Flight Blish, James 1957

  • The word "astern" was given as soon as the harpoon was thrown.

    The Von Toodleburgs Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family A. R. [Illustrator] Waud

  • Besides these she possessed two "astern" turbines and two cruising turbines -- all four on the wing shafts.

    The Wreck of the Titan or, Futility Morgan Robertson 1888

  • The rudder is gone, and we have sprung a leak astern which is more than we can stop.

    Armadale Wilkie Collins 1856

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