Definition of "stem"

stem¹

/stɛm/

noun
plural stems
1. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
  Quotations
  Where ye may all that are of noble ſtemm / Approach, and kiſs her ſacred veſtures hemm.
  1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, page 55
  While I do pray, learn here thy stem / And true descent.
  1633, George Herbert, Church Monuments
2. A branch of a family.
  Quotations
  This is a stem / Of that victorious stock.
  1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iv]
3. An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
  Quotations
  Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.The spelling has been modernized.
  1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837
4. (botany) The above-ground stalk (technically axis) of a vascular plant, and certain anatomically similar, below-ground organs such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, and corms.
  Quotations
  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.
  1736, Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World in Five Books
5. A slender supporting member of an individual part of a plant such as a flower or a leaf; also, by analogy, the shaft of a feather.
  Quotations
  Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
  2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7
6. A narrow part on certain man-made objects, such as a wine glass, a tobacco pipe, a spoon.
7. (linguistics) The main part of an uninflected word to which affixes may be added to form inflections of the word. A stem often has a more fundamental root. Systematic conjugations and declensions derive from their stems.
8. (slang) A person's leg.
  Quotations
  She was perfectly, fuckably proportioned everywhere else, both above and below her waist. A pocket-size Venus, with the longest stems he'd ever seen on someone so dang diminutive.
  2008, Lori Wilde, Rhonda Nelson, Cara Summers, August Harlequin Blaze
9. (slang) The penis.
  Quotations
  Waves of ecstasy roll through him as the moustachioed Casanova slides his stem in and out of the spaced-out chick.
  2005, Eric Bogosian, Wasted Beauty, page 135
10. (typography) A vertical stroke of a letter.
11. (music) A vertical stroke marking the length of a note in written music.
12. (music) A premixed portion of a track for use in audio mastering and remixing.
  Quotations
  Stem mastering processes a mix by breaking it down into several manageable pieces—that is, stereo stems. The stem approach allows the mastering engineer the opportunity to make larger or smaller changes to separate mix elements before the final compression and limiting are applied to the complete mix.
  2019, Karl Pedersen, Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard, The Recording, Mixing, and Mastering Reference Handbook, Oxford University Press, page 268
13. (nautical) The vertical or nearly vertical forward extension of the keel, to which the forward ends of the planks or strakes are attached.
  Quotations
  Both we will walke vpon the loftie cliffes,And Chriſtian Merchants that with Ruſſian ſtemsPlow vp huge furrowes in the Caſpian ſea,Shall vaile to vs, as Lords of al the Lake.
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)
14. (cycling) A component on a bicycle that connects the handlebars to the bicycle fork.
15. (anatomy) A part of an anatomic structure considered without its possible branches or ramifications.
16. (slang) A crack pipe; or the long, hollow portion of a similar pipe (i.e. meth pipe) resembling a crack pipe.
17. (chiefly Britain) A winder on a clock, watch, or similar mechanism.
verb
third-person singular simple present stems, present participle stemming, simple past and past participle stemmed
1. To remove the stem from.
2. To be caused or derived; to originate.
  Quotations
  Weight stigma often stems from an idea that patients are at fault for their body size.
  2023 June 2, H Conley, “Studies show top surgery is safe for fat patients, but some surgeons still mandate weight loss”, in STAT‎
3. To descend in a family line.
4. To direct the stem (of a ship) against; to make headway against.
  Quotations
  Nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the great Sperm Whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows which stem him.
  1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 41, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, page 199
5. (obsolete) To hit with the stem of a ship; to ram.
  Quotations
  As when two warlike Brigandines at sea, / With murdrous weapons arm'd to cruell fight, / Doe meete together on the watry lea, / They stemme ech other with so fell despight, / That with the shocke of their owne heedlesse might, / Their wooden ribs are shaken nigh a sonder […]
  1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii
6. To ram (clay, etc.) into a blasting hole.

stem²

/stɛm/

verb
third-person singular simple present stems, present participle stemming, simple past and past participle stemmed
1. (transitive) To stop, hinder (for instance, a river or blood).
  Quotations
  [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts.
  1636 (date written), John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, 4th edition, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1668
  Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barbarous age.
  1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis […], published 1711
2. (skiing) To move the feet apart and point the tips of the skis inward in order to slow down the speed or to facilitate a turn.

stem³

/stɛm/

noun
plural stems
1. Alternative form of steem

stem⁴

/stɛm/

noun
plural stems
1. Alternative form of STEM
  Quotations
  Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields are a particular cause for concern because within them there are more pronounced stereotypes, extreme competitiveness and gender inequities regarding the abilities and competencies of black male and female students.
  2015 May 29, BBC News, How do US black students perform at school?

stem⁵

/stɛm/

noun
plural stems
1. A lesbian, chiefly African-American, exhibiting both stud and femme traits.

Definition of "stem"

stem1

noun

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stem2

verb

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stem3

noun

stem4

noun

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stem5

noun

stem¹

stem²

stem³

stem⁴

stem⁵