sternforemost

English

Etymology

stern +‎ foremost

Adverb

sternforemost (not comparable)

1. With the stern, instead of the bow, in advance.
2. (figurative) In an awkward, blundering manner.
   • 1870, James Russell Lowell, Among my Books:

     A fatal genius for going sternforemost.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sternforemost”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)