sternwheel

American  

[sturn-hweel, -weel] / ˈstɜrn ʰwil, -ˌwil /

noun

Nautical.

1. a paddle wheel at the stern of a vessel.

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Etymology

Origin of sternwheel

First recorded in 1810–20; stern ² + wheel

Example Sentences

Mrs. Grimson is particularly noteworthy for her managership of freighting sternwheel steamers�the last of the once great Puget Sound fleet�after many years as skipper of same.

From Time Magazine Archive

A sternwheel deckhand is not an attractive person, as a rule, and I suppose I looked the part, aggravated considerably by my discolored optic and bruised face.

From The Land of Frozen Suns by Sinclair, Bertrand W.

Hill was the Mississippi steamboat agent at one end; at the other, an old Hudson Bay trader, Norman W. Kittson, ran two little old sternwheel steamboats from Breckenridge to Winnipeg.

From The Railroad Builders; a chronicle of the welding of the states by Moody, John

Q. His revelations as to his past were confined to memories of things which happened "when I was cuttin' wood down the Mississippi," or "when I was runnin' on an Ohio sternwheel."

From Si Klegg, Book 3 (of 6) Si And Shorty Meet Mr. Rosenbaum, The Spy, Who Relates His Adventures by McElroy, John

But she answered gallantly to the call, and glided out of the way just is the broad bow of the sternwheel steamboat came along, raising a white, foam-crested wave as she breasted the swift current.

From Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise or, The Dash for Dixie by Arundel, Louis