astream meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

astream

adj

/əˈstɹiːm/

Etymology From a- + stream.

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

The biker sped by, hair astream from under her helmet.
Glorious the northern lights astream;1763, Christopher Smart, A Song to David, London: Elkin Mathews, published 1901, page 34:

3 more examples

[…] as a finger of smoke / Astream over woodland1892, George Meredith, “The Empty Purse”, in Poems, London: Macmillan, page 9:
1968, Donald G. Payne (as Donald Gordon), The Golden Oyster, New York: William Morrow, 1968, Prologue, p. 14, […] oil astream from his engine, he came on till a burst of incendiaries hit him flush in the fuel tank.
The charioteer […] / His left hand lopped […] / Bronze reins astream in his right,2010, Seamus Heaney, “Chanson d’aventure”, in Human Chain, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 14:

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.
There the swishing tailed cows stand with mouths all astream,1887, Miller Hageman, “The Chippie at the Spring”, in Bird-Songs Translated into Words, Brooklyn, NY, page 72:

3 more examples

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, In an instant / the world entire is astream with joy.
[…] he twisted his head sharply and stared at the dark windows astream with rain,1967, John Farris, King Windom, New York: Trident Press, Part 1, Chapter 30, p. 372:
the causeways to Miami Beach all astream with traffic1984, Jan Morris, “What They Had to Offer”, in Journeys, Oxford University Press, page 101:

adv

Etymology From a- + stream.

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.
And pushed the laden raft astream1883, Edmund Clarence Stedman, “The Hand of Lincoln”, in Poems Now First Collected, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, published 1897, page 5:

3 more examples

[…] always he appeared at right or left, sometimes even on a log astream,1908, Stewart Edward White, chapter 24, in The Riverman, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 209:
There are many books written about shrimp cookery, for anyone who wants to go further afield or astream,1969, M. F. K. Fisher, chapter 4, in With Bold Knife and Fork,, New York: Putnam, published 1979, page 66:
1990, Thomas McGuane, “Fishing the Big Hole” in An Outside Chance, Boston: Houghton Mifflin / Seymour Lawrence, p. 249, […] the kind of sleepy, merry conversation I associate with the beginning of a day astream.

Nautical, Transport In line with the stream.

1892, E. F. Qualtrough, The Sailor’s Handy Book, New York: Scribner, Section 3, p. 145, 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, After she was once fairly astream of her drogue she shipped no more heavy water.

1 more example

The ship was pitching with an unsteadiness which meant they were now well astream; their charges could not get away.1945, Thomas B. Costain, The Black Rose, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, Book 2, Chapter 11, p. 286:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.