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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

from stem to stern en · ADP

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. Over the full length of a ship or boat, from the front end of the vessel to the back end.
    • My father, as nurse said, did never fear, / But cried ‘Good seaman!’ to the sailors […] / Never was waves nor wind more violent; / And from the ladder-tackle washes off / A canvas-climber. ‘Ha!’ says one, ‘wilt out?’ / And with a dropping industry they skip / From stem to stern. c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
    • The captain ordered an immediate and thorough search of the entire ship from stem to stern—no nook or cranny was to be overlooked. 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 106:
    • [T]he Monterey was ablaze from stem to stern as Lieutenant Ford stood near the helm, awaiting his orders. 2006 December 28, Robert Drury, Tom Clavin, “How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 Aug 2012:
    • From stem to stern, the [U.S.S.] Enterprise measures 1,040 ft.—roughly the height of the 102-story Empire State Building. 1961 December 1, “Armed Forces: The Mightiest Ever”, in Time:
    • The very name of a Sioux became a watchword of terror. Not an elk, a wolf, or any other animal, could appear on the hills, but the boats resounded with exclamations from stem to stern, "voila les Sioux!" "voila les Sioux!" (there are the Sioux! there are the Sioux!) 1836 October, Washington Irving, chapter XVI, in Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, page 192:
  2. (broadly, idiomatic) From front to back; from one end to the other end.
    • Michigan's Mackinac Island, the Lake Huron resort where automobiles are barred, was sprayed from stem to stern with DDT. 1945 August 27, “Science: War on Insects”, in Time:
    • Weighing in at four pounds, the lobster was rubbery and tasteless from stem to stern. 2005 Oct. 12, Marian Burros, "Take My Steak. Please." (restaurant review), New York Times (retrieved 23 Aug. 2012)
    • [T]he horse was the vainer brute of the two; he was far worse beflounced, bebonneted, and bemantled, than any fair lady. . . . [T]his poor animal from stem to stern was swamped in finery. 1861, Charles Reade, chapter 58, in The Cloister and the Hearth:

Translations (1)

ca de popa a proa (full length of a vessel)