from stem to stern
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Prepositional phrase
- (nautical) Over the full length of a ship or boat, from the front end of the vessel to the back end.
- c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, act 4, sc. 1:
- Marina: 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.
- 1836, Washington Irving, chapter 18, in Astoria:
- [T]he boats resounded with exclamations from stem to stern, "voila les Sioux! voila les Sioux!"
- 1961 Dec. 1, "Armed Forces: The Mightiest Ever," Time:
- From stem to stern, the [U.S.S.] Enterprise measures 1,040 ft.—roughly the height of the 102-story Empire State Building.
- 2006 Dec. 28, Robert Drury and Tom Clavin, "How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship," New York Times (retrieved 23 Aug. 2012):
- [T]he Monterey was ablaze from stem to stern as Lieutenant Ford stood near the helm, awaiting his orders.
- c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, act 4, sc. 1:
- (idiomatic, by extension) From front to back; from one end to the other end; entirely, fully.
- 1861, Charles Reade, chapter 58, in The Cloister and the Hearth:
- [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.
- 1945 Aug. 27, "Science: War on Insects," Time:
- Michigan's Mackinac Island, the Lake Huron resort where automobiles are barred, was sprayed from stem to stern with DDT.
- 2005 Oct. 12, Marian Burros, "Take My Steak. Please." (restaurant review), New York Times (retrieved 23 Aug. 2012):
- Weighing in at four pounds, the lobster was rubbery and tasteless from stem to stern.
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References
- from stem to stern at OneLook Dictionary Search
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