stern

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

• adjective Hard, harsh, or severe in manner or character: synonym: severe.
• adjective Showing or expressing displeasure or disapproval; forbidding or harsh.
• adjective Firm or unyielding; uncompromising.
• adjective Difficult to endure; oppressive.
• noun Nautical The rear part of a ship or boat.
• noun A rear part or section.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Same as starn.
• noun The rudder or helm of a vessel.
• noun Hence, figuratively, any instrument of management or direction; a guiding agent or agency; also, a post of direction or control.
• noun The hinder part of a ship or boat, where the rudder is placed; the part furthest removed from the stem or prow. See also cut under poop.
• noun The hinder parts, backside, buttocks, or rump; the tail of an animal.
• To steer; guide.
• To back (a boat) with the oars; back water; row backward.
• To draw back; back water: said of a boat or its crew.
• Severe in disposition or conduct; austere; harsh; rigorous; hard.
• Characterized by severity or rigor; especially, resulting from or expressive of harshness: as, a stern reply; a stern glance; a stern rebuke.
• Grim or forbidding in aspect; gloomy; repelling.
• Rough; violent; tumultuous; fierce.
• Rigid; stringent; strict.
• Stout; strong; heavy.
• Firm; unyielding; inflexible; hard.
• Synonyms Severe. Harsh, Strict, etc. See austere.
• 1 and
• Unrelenting, uncompromising, inflexible.
• noun A tern.

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

• adjective Being in the stern, or being astern.
• adjective (Naut.) a going or falling astern; a loss of way in making a tack. See Board, n., 8 (b).
• adjective (Naut.) A stern chaser.
• adjective (Naut.) a cannon placed in a ship's stern, pointing backward, and intended to annoy a ship that is in pursuit.
• adjective (Naut.) a rope used to confine the stern of a ship or other vessel, as to a wharf or buoy.
• adjective (Naut.) the framework of timber forms the stern of a ship.
• adjective See Sternson.
• adjective (Naut.) a port, or opening, in the stern of a ship.
• adjective (Naut.) that part of an open boat which is between the stern and the aftmost seat of the rowers, -- usually furnished with seats for passengers.
• adjective a paddle wheel attached to the stern of the steamboat which it propels.
• adjective Having a certain hardness or severity of nature, manner, or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh
• noun obsolete The helm or tiller of a vessel or boat; also, the rudder.
• noun (Naut.) The after or rear end of a ship or other vessel, or of a boat; the part opposite to the stem, or prow.
• noun Fig.: The post of management or direction.
• noun The hinder part of anything.
• noun The tail of an animal; -- now used only of the tail of a dog.
• noun (Naut.) See By the head, under By.
• noun (Zoöl.) The black tern.

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

• noun nautical The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.
• adjective Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
• adjective Grim and forbidding in appearance.

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

• adjective severely simple
• noun the rear part of a ship
• noun the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
• adjective severe and unremitting in making demands