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Example sentences for "stern"

Lexicographically close words:
sterilizer; sterilizing; sterlet; sterling; sterlings; sternal; sterned; sterner; sternest; sternly
  1. She loved beauty, as a Spaniard does, but this love was tempered by that stern Scotch sense which does not lose sight of what is useful.

  2. I raised my eyes: where was the one pass between the rim of stern rocks?

  3. I watched Arnald as we came in, there was no triumph on his stern white face, but resolution enough, he had made up his mind.

  4. Receiving no answer to his stern question, Elijah laid down the conditions of the contest.

  5. A king's justice must be shown alike in his gracious influence upon the good and his stern justice to the wicked.

  6. He was fresh from the stern challenge of Carmel; his hands were yet red with the blood of those four hundred and fifty priests.

  7. If we are spirits, yet we have bodies; and the body wreaks a stern and humiliating vengeance on those who neglect or despise it.

  8. The wildness and almost terror of his surroundings harmonised with his stern and fearless spirit.

  9. Could any condemnation be too stern for the folly and faithlessness of the king who sanctioned it?

  10. With consummate astuteness, by a word here and a word there, Jeroboam was able to pose before Solomon as the enforcer of a stern yoke, and before his countrymen as one who hated the hard necessity and would fain be their deliverer from it.

  11. It is obvious that, as royalty developed from the conception of the theocratic king to that of the Oriental despot, the stern warning of Samuel to the people of Israel was more and more fulfilled.

  12. Micaiah alone among the prophets uttered his stern warning when the expedition to Ramoth Gilead was actually on foot, and Jehu, son of Hanani, went out to rebuke Jehoshaphat at the close of that disastrous enterprise.

  13. When we learn what Baal was, and how he was worshipped, we are not surprised at so stern a condemnation.

  14. It may be doubted whether Solomon had ever read the stern prohibitions against intermarriage with the Canaanite nations which now stand on the page of the Pentateuch.

  15. This stern reproof to all the prophets was more than their coryphaeus Zedekiah could endure.

  16. She could not help laughing, but a moment later her face grew stern to consternation.

  17. Throughout that night he paced his room, or stood at his open window, staring out at the silvered slopes of Table Mountain but getting no peace of her stern eternal loveliness.

  18. There is far more to it, as you well know, sir," was the stern answer.

  19. He stared at the stern eyes before him, and could make no answer.

  20. No more would the burden of his message be a stern denunciation of these faults and sins.

  21. Knight, as reaching out of the stern he gripped Barry by the hair.

  22. Under the careless air there was a tense and stern look of expectation.

  23. There was singing and a little romping in the stern of the boat, where the ladies principally sat, and where their hoops called for some arrangement.

  24. It is your friends who would part us," he continued, with stern and bitter emphasis.

  25. I had rather it passed off quietly," suggested De la Zouch, who was by no means confident of his own prowess in a stern contest with naked weapons.

  26. Simon turned quickly round and prepared to retaliate, but quailing under the stern glance of his better half, he obeyed her will, and meekly slunk out through the open door.

  27. And whilst Dorothy's lover was animated by a stern resolve to punish his foe, at whatever the cost, De la Zouch fought like a madman, because he fought with a halter round his neck.

  28. I had best be on the safe side," and he gently scratched his hands to give himself the appearance of having passed through a long and stern struggle.

  29. Stern justice was now overtaking these wretches.

  30. He understood, at last, how dear she was to him--dearer than anything else in all the world save just his principles and stern life work.

  31. She had grown sober and serious, in these years of work and battle and stern endeavor.

  32. We passed a schooner's long-boat yesterday morning, and I read your name, the Mowbray, in her stern sheets.

  33. I'm for giving my stern to this here boiling.

  34. Captain Parry, stepping to the stern window with an air of distraction, and staring out at the sea.

  35. A large, old-fashioned stern window provided a spacious view of the sea.

  36. We'd take two men, and nail them face to face on a sea-chest, with long spikes driven through the stern of their trousers.

  37. They lashed the mast to the stern of their vessel, and in the course of a few hours were in possession of considerable booty.

  38. Immediately the stern expression passed away, and with a bright smile he raised the little girl to stand where she might easily look over the bulwark.

  39. His subsequent career at the West exhibits a noble picture of manly endeavor, stern self-reliance, rare mental activity and enterprise, and a generous devotion to the interests of the public.

  40. Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state With daring aims irregularly great.

  41. There are many things which we may defend without being able to justify them: and stern necessity often forces us to the use of measures which conscience disapproves.

  42. Let him go on, your majesty," murmured the wretched Anna, while her eyes were raised with a look of supreme agony upon the stern face of the emperor.

  43. His cold, stern features had grown more repulsive than ever to the unhappy girl; his piercing eyes more revengeful; his thin, pale lips more cruel.

  44. She thought over the golden hours of her youthful passion, and tried to win a smile from Orloff's stern face.

  45. After apologizing to Miss Arkwright for interrupting the lesson, Miss Kaye turned towards the girls with that stern look in her eyes which they knew and dreaded to meet.

  46. A weltering corse beside the boats, And the stern matron o'er him stood, Her hand and dagger streaming blood.

  47. I stanched thy father's death-feud stern With stout De Vaux and gray Glencairn; And Bothwell's Lord henceforth we own The friend and bulwark of our throne.

  48. Sir Roderick marked,--and in his eyes Respect was mingled with surprise, And the stern joy which warriors feel In foeman worthy of their steel.

  49. At length they came where, stern and steep, The hill sinks down upon the deep.

  50. Their light-armed archers far and near Surveyed the tangled ground, Their centre ranks, with pike and spear, A twilight forest frowned, Their barded horsemen in the rear The stern battalia crowned.

  51. Then clamored loud the royal train, And brandished swords and staves amain, But stern the Baron's warning: 'Back!

  52. Andrew was taken into the house and fed on preserves and sweetmeats by his doting mother, while the poor bound boy was toiling in the hot sun, dreading the return of his stern master.

  53. One look at the stern faces of the pair satisfied Bill that trouble awaited him.

  54. Herbert in a quick, stern tone that arrested George's attention.

  55. He was a man of middle age, well dressed, but with a hard, stern look upon his face.

  56. Unconquered Fate and stern necessity Oppress the feeble slaves of Death: Unable to avert their injuries, The common herd endure them patiently.

  57. But since stern Fate would not consent That I for Greece my dying eyes should close, In conflict with her foes, Still may the gracious gods accept The offering I bring, And grant to me the precious boon, Your Hymn of Praise to sing!

  58. Her children, why so joyously, Ran ye, that stern and rugged pass to guard?

  59. A stern and bitter smile played on the lips of his guards, but they remained silent.

  60. Lord Meadowbank's summing up was long and elaborate: stern and uncompromising from first to last in the expression of a very hostile view of the whole case, as against the prisoner, but still never straining the proved facts.

  61. Quum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit," that passage on friendship which gushes out so livingly from the stern heart of the satirist.

  62. A stupendous fall was before; stern walls of a rocky cañon, 100 feet high, around me, and a blue sky smiling above.

  63. At places the road is almost crowded into the river by the stern approach of precipices, and then again they separate while crossing broad, green, undulating bottoms.

  64. The funeral dance and the wedding dance are performed with the same stern immobility of features.

  65. Stretches of roaring rapids and cascades become frequent; green mountain islands arise in the center of the stream;--it is one stern mountain fastness.

  66. The stern look upon her father's face and the cold good-by he returned to all was plain evidence of something wrong in the family which all had begun to look upon as a perfect pattern of happiness and domestic goodness.

  67. Why tell the woes of winter, when the birds Lay stark and stiff, so stern was Ida's snow?

  68. The old Avenger, stern of mood For Atreus and his feast of blood, Hath struck the lord of Atreus' house, And in the semblance of his wife The king hath slain.

  69. And trailing tatters of my vest, In looped and windowed raggedness forlorn, Hang rent around my breast, Even as I, by blows of Fate most stern Saddened and torn.

  70. Stern and fixed the law is; we have hands t'achieve it, Cunning to devise.

  71. Blows ever stern blast of hate thro' my soul, And before me a vision of wrath and of bane Flits and waves to and fro.

  72. And that it was another was enough to make Mr. Thornton's pale grave face grow doubly wan and stern at Dixon's answer.

  73. He was away about half an hour; and scarcely less stern did he look when he returned, although his errand had been successful.

  74. She was ill at ease, and looked more than usually stern and forbidding as she entered the Hales' little drawing-room.

  75. She caught at Frederick's arm, and clutched it tight, while a stern thought compressed her brows, and caused her to set her teeth.

  76. Nay, there were a few no longer youths, but men in the prime of life, who had the stern wisdom to acknowledge their own ignorance, and to learn late what they should have learnt early.

  77. Very gray and stern did Mr. Thornton look, as he passed out through his wondering clerks.

  78. But the future must be met, however stern and iron it be.

  79. She is afraid I shall speak what will require some stern repression.

  80. Floating entirely on the surface, this was soon affected, and the young man checked the drift when he was told that the stern of the scow was within fifteen or eighteen feet of the desired spot.

  81. The speech is simple, naked of figures, every sentence impressed with a sense of responsibility for the work yet to be done and with a stern determination to do it.

  82. His poems against slavery and disunion have the martial ring of a Tyrtaeus or a Körner, added to the stern religious zeal of Cromwell's Ironsides.

  83. But it was plain that the loss neither of a hundred nor of a thousand would affect the stern determination of the crowd, whilst it might increase their fury.

  84. The new sensation displayed itself extravagantly, in the search for pleasures unknown during the stern and sombre reign.

  85. He fell asleep on a pillow in the stern of the boat one day crossing the lake.

  86. They saw only that face, and were so caught by the strong, stern determination plainly written there that they felt impelled not to offer the usual hospitality.


  87. The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "stern" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
    Other words:
    adamant; afterpart; ascetic; ass; astringent; austere; authoritarian; back; behind; breech; bum; can; cheek; companion; condign; counter; cutting; demanding; dictator; dour; exacting; exigent; extreme; fantail; firm; flinty; forbidding; gaunt; grim; hard; harsh; heel; immovable; immutable; imperative; implacable; inclement; inelastic; inexorable; inflexible; intransigent; iron; irreconcilable; meticulous; mortified; parts; posterior; postern; prudish; pungent; rear; rearward; relentless; reverse; rigid; rigorous; rough; rugged; scathing; serious; severe; ship; steely; stern; stiff; strict; stringent; tail; tight; tough; tush; unaffected; unalterable; unbending; unchangeable; uncompromising; unkind; unmoved; unrelenting; unsparing; unyielding


    Some related collocations, pairs and triplets of words:
    stern necessity; stern tone; stern voice