Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Stem?

\Stem\, Steem \Steem\, v. i. To gleam. [Obs.] His head bald, that shone as any glass, . . . [And] stemed as a furnace of a leed [caldron]. --Chaucer.
\Stem\, Steem \Steem\, n. A gleam of light; flame. [Obs.]
\Stem\, n. [AS. stemn, stefn, st[ae]fn; akin to OS. stamn the stem of a ship, D. stam stem, steven stem of a ship, G. stamm stem, steven stem of a ship, Icel. stafn, stamn, stem of a ship, stofn, stomn, stem, Sw. stam a tree trunk, Dan. stamme. Cf. {Staff}, {Stand}.] 1. The principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind; the main stock; the part which supports the branches or the head or top. After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem. --Sir W. Raleigh. The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and breaded grain. --Dryden. 2. A little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf with a main branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as, the stem of an apple or a cherry. 3. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. ``All that are of noble stem.'' --Milton. While I do pray, learn here thy stem And true descent. --Herbert. 4. A branch of a family. This is a stem Of that victorious stock. --Shak. 5. (Naut.) A curved piece of timber to which the two sides of a ship are united at the fore end. The lower end of it is scarfed to the keel, and the bowsprit rests upon its upper end. Hence, the forward part of a vessel; the bow. 6. Fig.: An advanced or leading position; the lookout. Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years. --Fuller. 7. Anything resembling a stem or stalk; as, the stem of a tobacco pipe; the stem of a watch case, or that part to which the ring, by which it is suspended, is attached. 8. (Bot.) That part of a plant which bears leaves, or rudiments of leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly subterranean. 9. (Zo["o]l.) (a) The entire central axis of a feather. (b) The basal portion of the body of one of the Pennatulacea, or of a gorgonian. 10. (Mus.) The short perpendicular line added to the body of a note; the tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc. 11. (Gram.) The part of an inflected word which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) throughout a given inflection; theme; base. {From stem to stern} (Naut.), from one end of the ship to the other, or through the whole length. {Stem leaf} (Bot.), a leaf growing from the stem of a plant, as contrasted with a basal or radical leaf.
\Stem\, v. t. 1. To remove the stem or stems from; as, to stem cherries; to remove the stem and its appendages (ribs and veins) from; as, to stem tobacco leaves. 2. To ram, as clay, into a blasting hole.
\Stem\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Stemmed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Stemming}.] [Either from stem, n., or akin to stammer; cf. G. stemmen to press against.] To oppose or cut with, or as with, the stem of a vessel; to resist, or make progress against; to stop or check the flow of, as a current. ``An argosy to stem the waves.'' --Shak. [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts. --Denham. Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age. --Pope.
\Stem\, v. i. To move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a current. Stemming nightly toward the pole. --Milton.