Chapter Stelvio to Still Waters Run Deep of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Stern To sit at the stern; At the stern of public affairs. Having the management of public affairs. The stern is the steer-ern- i.e. steer-place; and to sit at the stern is “to sit at the helm.”

“Sit at chiefest stern of public weal.”
Shakespeare: 1 Henry VI., 1. i.

Sternhold (Thomas) versified fifty-one of the Psalms. The remainder were the productions of Hopkins and some others. Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalms used to be attached to the Common Prayer Book.

“Mistaken choirs refuse the solemn strain
Of ancient Sternhold.” Crabbe: Borough.

Sterry (in Hudibras). A fanatical preacher, admired by Hugh Peters.

Stewing in their own Gravy Especially applied to a besieged city. The besiegers may leave the hostile city to suffer from want of food, loss of commerce, confinement, and so on. The phrase is very old, borrowed perhaps from the Bible, “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.” Chaucer says-

“In his own gress I made him frie,
For anger and for verry jalousie.”
Prologue to the Wife of Bathes Tale.

    We are told that the Russian ambassador, when Louis Philippe fortified Paris, remarked, if ever again Paris is in insurrection, it “can be made to stew in its own gravy (jus)”; and Bismarck, at the siege of Paris, in 1871, said, the Germans intend to leave the city “to seethe in its own milk.”- See Snell: Chronicles of Twyford, p. 295.

“He relieved us out of our purgatory ... after we had been stewing in our own gravy.”- The London Spy, 1716.

Stick A composing stick is a hand instrument into which a compositor places the letters to be set up. Each row or line of letters is pushed home and held in place by a movable “setting rule,” against which the thumb presses. When a stick is full, the matter set up is transferred to a “galley” (q.v.), and from the galley it is transferred to the “chase” (q.v.). Called a stick because the compositor sticks the letters into it.

Stickler One who obstinately maintains some custom or opinion; as a stickler for Church government. (See below.)
   A stickler about trifles. One particular about things of no moment. Sticklers were the seconds in ancient single combats, very punctilious about the minutest points of etiquette. They were so called from the white stick which they carried in emblem of their office.

“I am willing ... to give thee precedence, and content myself with the humbler office of stickler.”- Sir Walter Scott: Fair Maid of Perth, chap. xvi.

Stiff An I.O.U.; a bill of acceptance. “Hard,” means hard cash. “Did you get it stiff or hard?” means by an I.O.U. or in cash. Of course “stiff” refers to the stiff interest exacted by money lenders.

“His `stiff' was floating about in too many directions, at too many high figures.”- Ouida: Under Two Flags, chap. vii.

Stigmata Impressions on certain persons of marks corresponding to some or all of the wounds received by our Saviour in His trial and crucifixion. The following claim to have been so stigmatised:
   (1) MEN. Angelo del Paz (all the marks); Benedict of Reggio (the crown of thorns), 1602; Carlo di Saeta (the lance- wound); Dodo, a Premonstratensian monk (all the marks); Francis of Assisi (all the marks, which were impressed on him by a seraph with six wings), September 15th, 1224; Nicholas of Ravenna, etc.
   (2) WOMEN. Bianca de Gazeran; St. Catharine of Sienna; Catharine di Raconisco (the crown of thorns), 1583; Cecilia di Nobili of Nocera, 1655; Clara di Pugny (mark of the spear), 1514; “Estatica” of Caldaro (all the marks), 1842; Gabriella da Piezolo of Aquila (the spear-mark), 1472; Hieronyma Carvaglio (the spear-mark, which bled every Friday); Joanna Maria of the Cross; Maria Razzi of Chio (marks of the thorny crown); Maria