The sterne wind so loud gan to rout. Chaucer.

I would outstare the sternest eyes that look. Shak.

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Shak.

Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard. Dryden.

These barren rocks, your stern inheritance. Wordsworth.

Syn. -- Gloomy; sullen; forbidding; strict; unkind; hard- hearted; unfeeling; cruel; pitiless.

And sit chiefest stern of public weal. Shak.

By the stern. (Naut.) See By the head, under By.

Stern board (Naut.), a going or falling astern; a loss of way in making a tack; as, to make a stern board. See Board, n., 8 (b). -- Stern chase. (Naut.) (a) See under Chase, n. (b) A stern chaser. -- Stern chaser (Naut.), a cannon placed in a ship's stern, pointing backward, and intended to annoy a ship that is in pursuit. -- Stern fast (Naut.), a rope used to confine the stern of a ship or other vessel, as to a wharf or buoy. -- Stern frame (Naut.), the framework of timber forms the stern of a ship. -- Stern knee. See Sternson. -- Stern port (Naut.), a port, or opening, in the stern of a ship. -- Stern sheets (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. -- Stern wheel, a paddle wheel attached to the stern of the steamboat which it propels.