Definitions

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

  • adverb & adjective Toward, to, or in the stern.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Toward the stern.

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

  • adjective Towards the stern, aft.
  • adverb sternwards

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

stern +‎ -ward

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Examples

  • Alek looked sternward through the motionless propeller.

    Behemoth Mr. Scott Westerfeld 2010

  • Foremost through the sparkling sea shoots on the gay, embattled, bantering bow, but only to drag dark Ahab after it, where he broods within his sternward cabin, builded over the dead water of the wake, and further on, hunted by its wolfish gurglings.

    Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

  • She just stared sternward, ignoring the Indian crew, her husband and Sharpe.

    Sharpe's Trafalgar Cornwell, Bernard, 1944- 2000

  • Asera glowered sternward; Meder closed his case of implements and materials.

    Lord of the Isles 1997

  • Meder's chest of paraphernalia was tucked under the edge of a cargo net, but it wasn't under the same net as it had been at midnight when the wizard went sternward to take over the watch.

    Lord of the Isles 1997

  • He kicked the shore fast free and hopped onto the vessel's bow, then ran sternward along the gunwale to join Sharina.

    Lord of the Isles 1997

  • The nobles were coming sternward with a care that their clumsiness fully justified.

    Lord of the Isles 1997

  • Metal screamed as a huge spring shot sternward along a track, pulling on the rope to the primary gyroscopic stabilizer.

    The Dragons at War Weis, Margaret 1996

  • The dark wyrm stood upon the caravel's main deck, facing sternward and digging through the somercastle like a pangolin after termites.

    The Veiled Dragon Denning, Troy 1996

  • "Take the launch out, carry the anchor to sternward, drop it, and then use the windlass to draw us off the rock."

    Pastwatch, the Redemtion of Christopher Columbus Card, Orson Scott 1996

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