astern adv

1 stern foremost or backward; "the steamer went astern at half speed"

2 at or near or toward the stern of a ship or tail of an airplane; "stow the luggage aft"; "ships with square sails sail fairly efficiently with the wind abaft"; "the captain looked astern to see what the fuss was about" [syn: aft, abaft] [ant: fore]

3 (of a ship or an airplane) behind; "we dropped her astern on the end of a seven-inch manilla, and she laid comfortably on the ebb tide"

English

Adverb

astern

1. Beyond the stern when viewed from aboard.
   • He signalled the engineroom to go astern: in other words, to run the engine in such a way as to put the ship beyond the present position of her stern, as viewed from aboard.

Translations

Adjective

astern

1. behind
   • If one ship is following another, the first is astern when viewed from the second.

Usage notes

Within the ship, the corresponding adjective is abaft. An object nearer the stern than the mainmast is abaft the mainmast.

Translations

Preposition

astern of

1. behind
   • The ship left a wake astern of her.

Translations

a rebours, a reculons, abaft, aft, after, against the grain, anticlockwise, arear, ass-backwards, away, back, backward, backwards, baft, counterclockwise, fore and aft, fro, hindward, hindwards, in reverse, rear, rearward, rearwards, retrad, widdershins