Stern

1. a. Being in the stern, or being astern; as, the stern davits.
2. n. The black tern.
3. superl. Having a certain hardness or severity of nature, manner, or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree.
4. v. t. The helm or tiller of a vessel or boat; also, the rudder.
5. v. t. The after or rear end of a ship or other vessel, or of a boat; the part opposite to the stem, or prow.
6. v. t. Fig.: The post of management or direction.
7. v. t. The hinder part of anything.
8. v. t. The tail of an animal; — now used only of the tail of a dog.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.