What is "from stem to stern"

Stem \Stem\ (st[e^]m), n. [AS. stemn, stefn, st[ae]fn; akin to OS. stamn the stem of a ship, D. stam stem, steven stem of a ship, G. stamm stem, steven stem of a ship, Icel. stafn, stamn, stem of a ship, stofn, stomn, stem, Sw. stam a tree trunk, Dan. stamme. Cf. Staff, Stand.]

1. The principal body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind; the main stock; the part which supports the branches or the head or top.

   After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem.
   --Sir W. Raleigh.

   The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem and breaded grain.
   --Dryden.

2. A little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf with a main branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as, the stem of an apple or a cherry.

3. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. ``All that are of noble stem.''
   --Milton.

   While I do pray, learn here thy stem And true descent.
   --Herbert.

4. A branch of a family.

   This is a stem Of that victorious stock.
   --Shak.

5. (Naut.) A curved piece of timber to which the two sides of a ship are united at the fore end. The lower end of it is scarfed to the keel, and the bowsprit rests upon its upper end. Hence, the forward part of a vessel; the bow.

6. Fig.: An advanced or leading position; the lookout.

   Wolsey sat at the stem more than twenty years.
   --Fuller.

7. Anything resembling a stem or stalk; as, the stem of a tobacco pipe; the stem of a watch case, or that part to which the ring, by which it is suspended, is attached.

8. (Bot.) That part of a plant which bears leaves, or rudiments of leaves, whether rising above ground or wholly subterranean.

9. (Zo["o]l.)

   1. The entire central axis of a feather.

   2. The basal portion of the body of one of the Pennatulacea, or of a gorgonian.

10. (Mus.) The short perpendicular line added to the body of a note; the tail of a crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, etc.

11. (Gram.) The part of an inflected word which remains unchanged (except by euphonic variations) throughout a given inflection; theme; base.

    From stem to stern (Naut.), from one end of the ship to the other, or through the whole length.

    Stem leaf (Bot.), a leaf growing from the stem of a plant, as contrasted with a basal or radical leaf.

prep.phr. 1 (context nautical English) Over the full length of a ship or boat, from the front end of the vessel to the back end. 2 (context idiomatic by extension English) From front to back; from one end to the other end; entirely, fully.