astream

English

Etymology

From a- +‎ stream.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈstɹiːm/
• Rhymes: -iːm

Adjective

astream (not comparable)

1. Streaming, flowing (of a liquid, object blown by wind, light, sound).

   The biker sped by, hair astream from under her helmet.

   • 1763, Christopher Smart, A Song to David, London: Elkin Mathews, published 1901, page 34:

     Glorious the northern lights astream;

   • 1892, George Meredith, “The Empty Purse”, in Poems‎^[1], London: Macmillan, page 9:

     […] as a finger of smoke / Astream over woodland

   • 1968, Donald G. Payne (as Donald Gordon), The Golden Oyster, New York: William Morrow, 1968, Prologue, p. 14,^[2]

     […] oil astream from his engine, he came on till a burst of incendiaries hit him flush in the fuel tank.

   • 2010, Seamus Heaney, “Chanson d’aventure”, in Human Chain‎^[3], New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 14:

     The charioteer […] / His left hand lopped […] / Bronze reins astream in his right,

2. Having something flowing from, down or along it; covered (with something flowing).

   Past the finish line, she doubled over panting, her hair astream with sweat.

   • 1887, Miller Hageman, “The Chippie at the Spring”, in Bird-Songs Translated into Words‎^[4], Brooklyn, NY, page 72:

     There the swishing tailed cows stand with mouths all astream,

   • 1958, Samuel Beckett (translator), “Morning” by José Manuel Martínez Navarrete, in Octavio Paz (ed.), An Anthology of Mexican Poetry, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, p. 92,^[5]

     In an instant / the world entire is astream with joy.

   • 1967, John Farris, King Windom‎^[6], New York: Trident Press, Part 1, Chapter 30, p. 372:

     […] he twisted his head sharply and stared at the dark windows astream with rain,

   • 1984, Jan Morris, “What They Had to Offer”, in Journeys‎^[7], Oxford University Press, page 101:

     the causeways to Miami Beach all astream with traffic

Adverb

astream (not comparable)

1. In, into, on, onto or along a stream (or other watercourse).

   I prefer to clean the fish I catch right away, while I’m astream.

   • 1883, Edmund Clarence Stedman, “The Hand of Lincoln”, in Poems Now First Collected‎^[8], Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, published 1897, page 5:

     And pushed the laden raft astream

   • 1908, Stewart Edward White, chapter 24, in The Riverman‎^[9], New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 209:

     […] always he appeared at right or left, sometimes even on a log astream,

   • 1969, M. F. K. Fisher, chapter 4, in With Bold Knife and Fork,‎^[10], New York: Putnam, published 1979, page 66:

     There are many books written about shrimp cookery, for anyone who wants to go further afield or astream,

   • 1990, Thomas McGuane, “Fishing the Big Hole” in An Outside Chance, Boston: Houghton Mifflin / Seymour Lawrence, p. 249,^[11]

     […] the kind of sleepy, merry conversation I associate with the beginning of a day astream.

2. (nautical) In line with the stream.
   • 1892, E. F. Qualtrough, The Sailor’s Handy Book, New York: Scribner, Section 3, p. 145,^[12]

     Icebergs should always be passed to one side to avoid the detached fragments, lying low in the water, which are often found astream of the berg in masses sufficiently great to stave in the bows of the strongest ship.

   • 1896, Claud Worth diary entry dated 24 September, 1896, in Yacht Cruising, J.D. Potter, 1910, cited in J.O. Coote (ed.), The Norton Book of the Sea, New York: Norton, 1989, p. 138,^[13]

     After she was once fairly astream of her drogue she shipped no more heavy water.

   • 1945, Thomas B. Costain, The Black Rose‎^[14], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 286:

     The ship was pitching with an unsteadiness which meant they were now well astream; their charges could not get away.

Coordinate terms

• (in / along a stream): afield

Anagrams

• maestra, retamas