stem /ˈstɛm/
 莖,柄,船首,血統,堵塞物(vt.)摘掉莖,裝柄于,阻止,堵住,逆行(vi.)堵住,逆行
 stem
 幹
 Stem Steem v. i. To gleam. [Obs.]
 His head bald, that shone as any glass, . . .
 [And] stemed as a furnace of a leed [caldron].   --Chaucer.
 Stem, Steem , n. A gleam of light; flame. [Obs.]
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 Stem n.
 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.
    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.
 The lowering spring, with lavish rain,
 Beats down the slender stem and breaded grain.   --Dryden.
 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.
 3. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. “All that are of noble stem.”
 While I do pray, learn here thy stem
 And true descent.   --Herbert.
 4. A branch of a family.
 This is a stem
 Of that victorious stock.   --Shak.
 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.
 6. Fig.: An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
    Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.   --Fuller.
 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.
 8. Bot. That part of a plant which bears leaves, or rudiments of leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly subterranean.
 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.
 10. Mus. The short perpendicular line added to the body of a note; the tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc.
 11. Gram. The part of an inflected word which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) throughout a given inflection; theme; base.
 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.
 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.
 2. To ram, as clay, into a blasting hole.
 Stem, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stemmed p. pr. & vb. n. Stemming.]  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.”
    [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts.   --Denham.
    Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age.   --Pope.
 Stem, v. i. To move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a current.
    Stemming nightly toward the pole.   --Milton.
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 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]