adv. [See -WARD, -WARDS.] Towards or in the direction of the stern. Also of position, astern.
1832. J. P. Kennedy, Swallow Barn (1860), 16. I gazed upon the receding headlands far sternward.
1892. Hardy, Well-Beloved, III. vi. (1897), 309. Their course, whether stemwards or sternwards, was steadily south.
1904. ‘O’ (Lionel James), in Blackw. Mag., July, 134. As the admiral glanced sternwards he saw behind him a flickering line of yellow flashes.
1913. Daily News, 5 Jan., 6. Logs of trees drifted past us sternward.
b. From the sternward: in a direction from the stern: see -WARD.
1866. Neale, Sequences & Hymns, 38. The shipmen … Cast four anchors from the sternward.
