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From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

 Stern, a. [Compar. Sterner superl. Sternest.]  Having a certain hardness or severity of nature, manner, or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree.
    The sterne wind so loud gan to rout.   --Chaucer.
    I would outstare the sternest eyes that look.   --Shak.
 When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
 Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.   --Shak.
    Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard.   --Dryden.
    These barren rocks, your stern inheritance.   --Wordsworth.
 Syn: -- Gloomy; sullen; forbidding; strict; unkind; hard-hearted; unfeeling; cruel; pitiless.