Severe; austere; fixed with an aspect of severity and authority; as a stern look; a stern countenance; a stern frown. I would outstare the sternest eyes that look.

Severe of manner; rigid; harsh; cruel. Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard. Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Hard; afflictive. If wolves had at thy gate howld that stern time.

Rigidly stedfast; immovable. Stern virtue is the growth of few soils.

The hind part of a ship or other vessel, or of a boat; the part opposite to the stern or prow. This part of a ship is terminated by the tafferel above, and by the counters below.

Post of management; direction. An sit at chiefest stern of public weal.

The hinder part of any thing. By the stern, is a phrase which denotes that a ship is more deeply laden abaft than forward.