stern

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Hard, harsh, or severe in manner or character: a stern disciplinarian. See Synonyms at severe.
2. adj. Grim, gloomy, or forbidding in appearance or outlook.
3. adj. Firm or unyielding; uncompromising.
4. adj. Inexorable; relentless: stern necessity.
5. n. Nautical The rear part of a ship or boat.
6. n. A rear part or section.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Severe in disposition or conduct; austere; harsh; rigorous; hard.
2. Characterized by severity or rigor; especially, resulting from or expressive of harshness: as, a stern reply; a stern glance; a stern rebuke.
3. Grim or forbidding in aspect; gloomy; repelling.
4. Rough; violent; tumultuous; fierce.
5. Rigid; stringent; strict.
6. Stout; strong; heavy.
7. Firm; unyielding; inflexible; hard.
8. Synonyms Severe. Harsh, Strict, etc. See austere.
9. 1 and
10. Unrelenting, uncompromising, inflexible.
11. n. The rudder or helm of a vessel.
12. n. Hence, figuratively, any instrument of management or direction; a guiding agent or agency; also, a post of direction or control.
13. n. 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.
14. n. The hinder parts, backside, buttocks, or rump; the tail of an animal.
15. To steer; guide.
16. To back (a boat) with the oars; back water; row backward.
17. To draw back; back water: said of a boat or its crew.
18. n. Same as starn.
19. n. A tern.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Having a hardness and severity of nature or manner.
2. adj. Grim and forbidding in appearance.
3. n. nautical The rear part or after end of a ship or vessel.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) The black tern.
2. adj. Having a certain hardness or severity of nature, manner, or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh.
3. n. obsolete The helm or tiller of a vessel or boat; also, the rudder.
4. n. (Naut.) The after or rear end of a ship or other vessel, or of a boat; the part opposite to the stem, or prow.
5. n. Fig.: The post of management or direction.
6. n. The hinder part of anything.
7. n. The tail of an animal; -- now used only of the tail of a dog.
8. adj. Being in the stern, or being astern.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. severely simple
2. n. the rear part of a ship
3. n. the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
4. adj. severe and unremitting in making demands
5. n. United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920)
6. adj. of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect
7. adj. not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty