adjective, noun
adjective (sterner, sternest)
1 serious and often disapproving; expecting sb to obey you:
a stern face / expression / look * a stern warning * Her voice was stern. * The police are planning sterner measures to combat crime.
2 serious and difficult:
a stern test of nerves * We face stern opposition.
sternly adverb sternness noun [U]
IDIOMS
be made of sterner stuff to have a stronger character and to be more determined in dealing with problems than other people:
Many would have given up, but Tim was made of sterner stuff.
noun the back end of a ship or boat:
to stand in / on / at the stern
compareBOWn., POOP
IDIOMS see STEMn.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for stern is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does stern appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — stern appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
