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Stem   /stɛm/   Listen
noun
Steem, Stem  n.  A gleam of light; flame. (Obs.)


Stem  n.  
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." "The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and breaded grain."
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." "While I do pray, learn here thy stem And true descent."
4.
A branch of a family. "This is a stem Of that victorious stock."
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."
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.
(Zool.)
(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.


verb
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.  (past & past part. stemmed; pres. part. stemming)  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." "(They) stem the flood with their erected breasts." "Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age."


Steem, Stem  v. i.  To gleam. (Obs.) "His head bald, that shone as any glass,... (And) stemed as a furnace of a leed (caldron)."


Stem  v. i.  To move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a current. "Stemming nightly toward the pole."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Stem" Quotes from Famous Books



... were met face to face by the reinforcement coming to their assistance. At this crisis some of the soldiers refused to obey Pyrrhus's order to retreat, while others who were willing enough to do so could not stem the tide of men marching in from the gate. At the gate itself too the largest of the elephants had fallen sideways and lay there bellowing, blocking up the way for those who were trying to pass out, while one of the elephants of ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume II • Aubrey Stewart & George Long
... of the entrance, and wait a change in the tide. After waiting in this position for nearly an hour they again put out, and headed for the entrance. A rapid current was still setting in, and the men had to pull with all their strength to stem it and ...
— The Von Toodleburgs - Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family • F. Colburn Adams
... Tulipiferum, the most magnificent of American foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth, and often rises to a great height without lateral branches; but, in its riper age, the bark becomes gnarled and uneven, while many short limbs make their appearance on the stem. Thus the difficulty of ascension, in the present case, lay more in semblance than in reality. Embracing the huge cylinder as closely as possible with his arms and knees, seizing with his hands some projections, and resting his naked toes upon others, Jupiter, after one ...
— The Short-story • William Patterson Atkinson
... no initiative: the stem of her being seems to be cut through. Her husband, physically the stronger, maddened by pangs he had foreseen, but still flaming with life, comes into the foreground, and she retires. Her will remains, and she does her best to ...
— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley
... do? It was useless to run; the waters could run faster than he. It would be impossible to stem that fierce current and fight his way out against it. Must he, then, die, alone in that awful place with no sound save the roar of waters in his ears? Could it be that he should never again see his mother and little Helen and the sunlight? Was his life over, and must he be carried ...
— Derrick Sterling - A Story of the Mines • Kirk Munroe


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