STEM, n. [G., stock, stem, race. The primary sense is to set, to fix.]

1. The principal body of a tree, shrub or plant of any kind; the main stock; the firm part which supports the branches. After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough or twig on the stem. – Ralegh. The low'ring spring with lavish rain, / Beats down the slender stem and bearded grain. – Dryden.
2. The peduncle of the fructification, or the pedicle of a flower; that which supports the flower or the fruit of a plant; the petiole or leaf-steam.
3. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors; as, a noble stern. – Milton. Learn well their lineage and their ancient stem. – Tickel.
4. Progeny; branch of a family. This is a stem / Of that victorious stock. – Shak.
5. In a ship, a circular 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. [D. semen.] – Mar. Dict. From stem to stern, is from one end of the ship to the other, or through the whole length.

In music, the short perpendicular line added to a note.

1. To oppose or resist, as a current; or to make progress against a current. We say, the ship was not able with all her sails to stem the tide. They stem the flood with their erected breasts. – Denham.
2. To stop; to check; as a stream or moving force. At length Erasmus, that great injur'd name, / Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barb'rous age, / And drove those holy Vandals off the stage. – Pope.

1. To gleam.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   His head bald, that shone as any glass, . . .
   [And] stemed as a furnace of a leed [caldron]. Chaucer.

2. A gleam of light; flame.
   
   
   [Obs.]
3. 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.

4. 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.
5. 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." Shak.

   [They] stem the flood with their erected breasts. Denham.

   Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age. Pope.

6. To move forward against an obstacle, as a vessel against a current.
   
   

   Stemming nightly toward the pole. Milton.

7. 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.
8. To ram, as clay, into a blasting hole.
9. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors.
   
   
   "All that are of noble stem." Milton.

   While I do pray, learn here thy stem
   And true descent. Herbert.

10. A branch of a family.
    
    

    This is a stem
    Of that victorious stock. Shak.

11. 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.
12. Fig.: An advanced or leading position; the lookout.
    
    

    Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years. Fuller.

13. 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.
14. That part of a plant which bears leaves, or rudiments of leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly subterranean.
15. The entire central axis of a feather.
    
    
    (b)
16. The short perpendicular line added to the body of a note; the tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc.
17. 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.