Sternwheel

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A paddle wheel positioned at the stern of a vessel.

    "The current was more rapid now, the steamer seemed at her last gasp, the stern–wheel flopped languidly, and I caught myself listening on tiptoe for the next beat of the boat, for in sober truth I expected the wretched thing to give up every moment."

Example

More examples

"The current was more rapid now, the steamer seemed at her last gasp, the stern–wheel flopped languidly, and I caught myself listening on tiptoe for the next beat of the boat, for in sober truth I expected the wretched thing to give up every moment."

Etymology

From stern + wheel.

Related phrases

paddle wheel

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.