Link Centre Dictionary

astern

as·tern

UK/əˈstɜːn/ US/əˈstɝn/ uncommon obsolete rare

adverb

1.

stern foremost or backward

  • “the steamer went astern at half speed”
2.

at or near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane

  • “stow the luggage aft”
  • “ships with square sails sail fairly efficiently with the wind abaft”
  • “the captain looked astern to see what the fuss was about”
Synonyms
Antonyms
3.

(of a ship or an airplane) behind

  • “we dropped her astern on the end of a seven-inch manilla, and she laid comfortably on the ebb tide”

Origin

From a- (“towards”) + stern (“rear part of a vessel”).

Phrases

  • astern of
  • drop astern

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.