[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

stem \stem\, steem \steem\, n.
   a gleam of light; flame. obs.
   1913 webster

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

stem \stem\ ste^m, n. as. stemn, stefn, staefn; akin to os.
   stamn the stem of a ship, d. stam stem, steven stem of a
   ship, g. stamm stem, steven stem of a ship, icel. stafn,
   stamn, stem of a ship, stofn, stomn, stem, sw. stam a tree
   trunk, dan. stamme. cf. staff, stand.
   1. the principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any
      kind; the main stock; the part which supports the branches
      or the head or top.
      1913 webster

            after they are shot up thirty feet in length, they
            spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in
            the trunk or the stem.                --sir w.
                                                  raleigh.
      1913 webster

            the lowering spring, with lavish rain,
            beats down the slender stem and breaded grain.
                                                  --dryden.
      1913 webster

   2. a little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf
      with a main branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as,
      the stem of an apple or a cherry.
      1913 webster

   3. the stock of a family; a race or generation of
      progenitors. "all that are of noble stem." --milton.
      1913 webster

            while i do pray, learn here thy stem
            and true descent.                     --herbert.
      1913 webster

   4. a branch of a family.
      1913 webster

            this is a stem
            of that victorious stock.             --shak.
      1913 webster

   5. naut. a curved piece of timber to which the two sides of
      a ship are united at the fore end. the lower end of it is
      scarfed to the keel, and the bowsprit rests upon its upper
      end. hence, the forward part of a vessel; the bow.
      1913 webster

   6. fig.: an advanced or leading position; the lookout.
      1913 webster

            wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.
                                                  --fuller.
      1913 webster

   7. anything resembling a stem or stalk; as, the stem of a
      tobacco pipe; the stem of a watch case, or that part to
      which the ring, by which it is suspended, is attached.
      1913 webster

   8. bot. that part of a plant which bears leaves, or
      rudiments of leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly
      subterranean.
      1913 webster

   9. zool.
      a the entire central axis of a feather.
      b the basal portion of the body of one of the
          pennatulacea, or of a gorgonian.
          1913 webster

   10. mus. the short perpendicular line added to the body of
       a note; the tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc.
       1913 webster

   11. gram. the part of an inflected word which remains
       unchanged except by euphonic variations throughout a
       given inflection; theme; base.
       1913 webster

   from stem to stern naut., from one end of the ship to the
      other, or through the whole length.

   stem leaf bot., a leaf growing from the stem of a plant,
      as contrasted with a basal or radical leaf.
      1913 webster
see also:
staff stand from stem to stern stem leaf 

[3] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

stem \stem\, steem \steem\, v. i.
   to gleam. obs.
   1913 webster

         his head bald, that shone as any glass, . . .
         and stemed as a furnace of a leed caldron.
                                                  --chaucer.
   1913 webster stem

[4] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

stem \stem\, v. i.
   to move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a
   current.
   1913 webster

         stemming nightly toward the pole.        --milton.
   1913 webster

[5] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

stem \stem\, v. t.
   1. to remove the stem or stems from; as, to stem cherries; to
      remove the stem and its appendages ribs and veins from;
      as, to stem tobacco leaves.
      1913 webster

   2. to ram, as clay, into a blasting hole.
      1913 webster

[6] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

stem \stem\, v. t. imp.  p. p. stemmed; p. pr.  vb. n.
   stemming. either from stem, n., or akin to stammer; cf.
   g. stemmen to press against.
   to oppose or cut with, or as with, the stem of a vessel; to
   resist, or make progress against; to stop or check the flow
   of, as a current. "an argosy to stem the waves." --shak.
   1913 webster

         they stem the flood with their erected breasts.
                                                  --denham.
   1913 webster

         stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age. --pope.
   1913 webster
see also:
stemmed stemming 

[7] : WordNet (r) 2.0

stem
     n 1: linguistics the form of a word after all affixes are
          removed; "thematic vowels are part of the stem" syn: root,
           root word, base, theme, radical
     2: a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or
        fungus or a plant part or plant organ syn: stalk
     3: cylinder forming a long narrow part of something syn: shank
     4: the tube of a tobacco pipe
     5: front part of a vessel or aircraft; "he pointed the bow of
        the boat toward the finish line" syn: bow, fore, prow
     6: a turn made in skiing; the back of one ski is forced outward
        and the other ski is brought parallel to it syn: stem
        turn
     v 1: grow out of, have roots in, originate in; "the increase in
          the national debt stems from the last war"
     2: cause to point inward; "stem your skis"
     3: stop the flow of a liquid; "staunch the blood flow"; "them
        the tide" syn: stanch, staunch, halt
     4: remove the stem from; "for automatic natural language
        processing, the words must be stemmed"
     also: stemming, stemmed
see also:
root root word base theme radical stalk 
shank bow fore prow stem turn 
stanch staunch halt stemming stemmed 

[8] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

467 moby thesaurus words for "stem":
   ic analysis, maypole, v, accidence, accrue from, adjutage, advance,
   affiliation, affix, affixation, affront, allomorph, animal kingdom,
   ankle, antagonize, anthrophore, apparentation, arise, arise from,
   arrest, ascender, axis, back, baluster, balustrade, banister, bar,
   base, bastard type, battle, bayonet legs, be contingent on,
   be due to, beak, beard, beat against, beat up against, beginning,
   belly, bevel, bifurcate, birth, black letter, block, blood,
   bloodline, body, bole, bound morpheme, bow, bowlegs, bows,
   bowsprit, brake, branch, branch out, brave, breast,
   breast the wave, breed, bring before, bring forward, bring to,
   bring up, bring up short, brood, buck, bud from, buffet,
   buffet the waves, calf, cane, cap, capital, carpophore, caryatid,
   case, catheter, caudex, caulicle, caulis, challenge, check,
   checkmate, clan, class, close with, cnemis, colonnade, column,
   combat, come, come along, come from, come on, come out of,
   commencement, common ancestry, compete with, conception, confront,
   confront with, conjugation, consanguinity, contend against,
   contest, control, counter, cover ground, crotch, crutch, culm,
   curb, cut short, cutting, dado, dam, dare, deadlock, declension,
   defy, delta, deme, depend on, derivation, derive, derive from,
   descend, descend from, descender, descent, develop, die,
   difference of form, diminish, direct line, distaff side,
   divaricate, drainpipe, draw rein, drumstick, efflux tube, em,
   emanate, emanate from, emerge from, en, enclitic, encounter,
   ensue from, envisage, extraction, face, face with, family, fan,
   fat-faced type, feet, female line, fight, fight against,
   figurehead, filiation, fire hose, flagstaff, flow, flow from,
   flue pipe, folk, follow from, font, footstalk, forecastle,
   foredeck, foreleg, forepeak, fork, formative, free form, freeze,
   front, funicule, funiculus, funnel, furcate, furcula, furculum,
   gain ground, gamb, gambrel, garden hose, gas pipe, gather head,
   gather way, generate, genesis, gens, germinate from, get ahead,
   get along, gigot, go, go ahead, go along, go fast, go forward,
   go on, grapple with, grass roots, groin, groove, grow, grow from,
   grow out of, halt, ham, hang on, haulm, head, hind leg, hinge on,
   hock, hose, hosepipe, house, immediate constituent analysis,
   inception, infix, infixation, inflection, inguen, issue,
   issue from, italic, jack, jamb, jib boom, join battle with, kind,
   knee, labor against, lay before, leafstalk, leg, lessen, letter,
   ligature, limb, line, line of descent, lineage, logotype,
   lower case, majuscule, make good time, make head against,
   make progress, make progress against, make strides, make up leeway,
   male line, matriclan, meet, meet squarely, militate against,
   minuscule, morph, morpheme, morphemic analysis, morphemics,
   morphology, morphophonemics, move, move forward, nation,
   newel-post, nick, nipple, nose, offer resistance, offshoot, order,
   organ pipe, origin, original, originate, originate in, origination,
   paradigm, pass along, pass on, patriclan, pedestal, pedicel,
   peduncle, people, petiole, petiolule, petiolus, phratry, phyle,
   phylum, pi, pica, pier, pilaster, pile, piling, pillar, pipe,
   pipeline, pipette, piping, place before, plant kingdom, plinth,
   podite, point, pole, popliteal space, post, prefix, prefixation,
   present to, prevail over, print, proceed, proceed from, proclitic,
   progress, prong, prore, provenience, prow, pull up, put it to,
   put paid to, queen-post, quell, race, radical, radix, ramification,
   ramify, reduce, reed, reed pipe, reluct, reluctate, resist, result,
   retard, rise, rival, rod, roll, roman, root, rostrum, sans serif,
   scape, scissor-legs, script, seed, seedstalk, sept, set before,
   shaft, shank, shin, shoot, shoulder, siamese, siamese connection,
   side, siphon, slow, small cap, small capital, snorkel, socle,
   soil pipe, source, spear, spear side, species, spindle side, spire,
   spring, spring from, sprout, sprout from, staff, stalemate, stalk,
   stall, stamp, stanch, stanchion, stand, standard, standpipe,
   staunch, stay, steam pipe, stem from, stem the tide, stems,
   step forward, stick, stipe, stirps, stock, stop, stop cold,
   stop dead, stop short, strain, straw, strive against,
   struggle against, stumps, subbase, succession, suffix, suffixation,
   suppress, surbase, sword side, take on, tap, taproot, tarsus,
   theme, tigella, tongue, totem, totem pole, travel, tribe, trident,
   trifurcate, trotters, trunk, tube, tubing, tubulation, tubule,
   tubulet, tubulure, turn on, type, type body, type class, type lice,
   typecase, typeface, typefounders, typefoundry, upper case, upright,
   vie with, waste pipe, water pipe, wishbone, withstand,
   word-formation

[9] : U.S. Gazetteer (1990)

stem, nc town, fips 64940
  location: 36.19981 n, 78.72323 w
  population 1990: 249 111 housing units
  area: 2.4 sq km land, 0.0 sq km water
  zip codes: 27581

[10] : U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000)

stem, nc -- u.s. town in north carolina
   population 2000:    229
   housing units 2000: 102
   land area 2000:     0.936489 sq. miles 2.425495 sq. km
   water area 2000:    0.001160 sq. miles 0.003004 sq. km
   total area 2000:    0.937649 sq. miles 2.428499 sq. km
   fips code:            64940
   located within:       north carolina nc, fips 37
   location:             36.200527 n, 78.723605 w
   zip codes 1990:     27581
   note: some zip codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
   headwords:
    stem, nc
    stem

Brain Stem >> B Words
Brain Stem, definition of term: Brain Stem
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