thwart

comparative more thwart · superlative most thwart

1. Placed or situated across something else; cross, oblique, transverse.

   Which elſe to ſeveral Sphears thou muſt aſcribe, / Mov'd contrarie with thwart obliquities, / Or ſave the Sun his labour, and that ſwift / Nocturnal and Diurnal rhomb ſuppos'd, / Inviſible elſe above all Starrs, the Wheele / Of Day and Night; […]

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 768–773

2. datedfigurativelyOf people: having a tendency to oppose; obstinate, perverse, stubborn.

   […] and it is without all controuerſie, that learning doth make the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant to gouernment; whereas Ignorance makes them churliſh, thwart, and mutinous; […]

   1605, Francis Bacon, “The First Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 11, recto

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   […] harke Nature, heare deere Goddeſſe, ſuſpend thy purpoſe, if thou did'ſt intend to make this creature fruitful into her wombe, conuey ſterility, drie vp in hir the organs of increaſe, and from her derogate body neuer ſpring a babe to honour her, if ſhee muſt teeme, create her childe of ſpleene, that it may liue and bee a thourt diſuetur'd^([sic – meaning disnatured]) torment to her, […]

   c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]

   Synonyms: cross-grained, froward, adamant, ardent, grim, untiring, bent on, bloody-minded

3. datedfigurativelyOf situations or things: adverse, unfavourable, unlucky.

   Synonyms: unpropitious, untoward, down on one's luck, fortuneless, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-starred, inauspicious

1. not comparableobsoleteAcross the direction of travel or length of; athwart, crosswise, obliquely, transversely.

   With adverſe blaſt up-turns them from the South / Notus and Afer black with thundrous Clouds / From Serraliona; thwart of theſe as fierce / Forth ruſh the Levant and the Ponent VVindes / Eurus and Zephir with their lateral noiſe, / Sirocco, and Libecchio.

   1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 701–706

1. archaicpoeticAcross, athwart.

present singular third person thwarts · participle present thwarting · participle past thwarted · past thwarted · first person past singular thwarted · archaic present second person singular thwartest · past second person singular thwarted · archaic past second person singular thwartedst · present singular third person thwarts · archaic present singular third person thwarteth · past singular third person thwarted · past plural thwarted · past subjunctive thwarted · participle present thwarting · participle past thwarted

1. transitiveTo cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.

   The police thwarted the would-be assassin.

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   Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the thunderstorm.

   If thou grieueſt that beeing the daughter of a Prince, and enuie thwarteth thée with ſuch hard exigents, thinke that royaltie is a faire marke; that Crownes haue croſſes when mirth is in Cottages; that the fairer the Roſe is, the ſooner it is bitten with Catterpillers; […]

   1590, T[homas] L[odge], “Alindas Comfort to Perplexed Rosalynd”, in Rosalynde. Euphues Golden Legacie: […], London: […] Thomas Orwin for T. G[ubbin] and John Busbie, →OCLC, folio 13, recto

   The Underſtanding and Will never diſagreed; for the Propoſals of the one never thwarted the Inclinations of the other.

   1662 November 9, Robert South, “[Sermon II] A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral-Church of St. Paul’s, November the 9th, 1662: Genesis i. 27. So God created Man in his own Image, in the Image of God created He him.”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 5th edition, volume I, London: Printed for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page 60

   Hear ye the serf I bred, begin to reckon / Upon his rights and pleasure! Who am I— / Thou abject, who am I, whose will thou thwartest?

   1830, Walter Scott, “Auchindrane; or, The Ayrshire Tragedy”, in The Doom of Devorgoil, a Melo-drama; Auchindrane; or, The Ayrshire Tragedy, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Company] for Cadell and Company; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 309

   Not unnaturally, "Auntie" took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and perhaps had spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361

   Synonyms: balk, foil, spoil, cross, discomfit, disconcert, baffle, scuttle · Antonyms: promote

2. obsoletetransitiveTo place (something) across (another thing); to position crosswise.
3. alsofigurativelyobsoletetransitiveTo hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.

   Synonyms: behedge, blunt, crimp, foreclose, delay, difficult, diminish, forestay

4. ambitransitiveobsoleteTo move (something) across or counter to; to cross.

   An arrow thwarts the air.

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   Thither came Uriel, gliding through the Eeven / On a Sun beam, ſwift as a ſhooting Starr / In Autumn thwarts the night, […]

   1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 555–557

plural thwarts

1. nauticalA seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.

   The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row.

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   When taking his seat in a boat, the learner should first observe that the thwart is firmly fixed, and that the mat upon it is securely tied to that part of it which is farthest from his rowlock.

   [1876–1879?], “Our Holiday. Rowing.—I.”, in The Popular Educator: A Complete Encyclopædia of Elementary, Advanced, and Technical Education, new and revised edition, volume IV, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, […], →OCLC, page 32, column 2

   Jane Porter had been the first of those in the lifeboat to awaken the morning after the wreck of the Lady Alice. The other members of the party were asleep upon the thwarts or huddled in cramped positions in the bottom of the boat.

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 150

   Beneath the middle and aft thwarts were two tubs, each containing about two hundred fathoms of line[.]

   1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 21

   Synonyms: thaught, thawt, thoft

2. nauticalA brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (“breadth”) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail.

   A well-made dugout canoe rarely needs a thwart.

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   A conſiderable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to which they were ſecurely laſhed on each ſide, as a ſtrengthening to the boat [a canoe].

   1773, “Of the Canoes and Navigation of the Inhabitants of New Zealand; […]”, in John Hawkesworth, editor, An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, […] In Three Volumes, volume III, Printed for W[illiam] Strahan and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book II, page 58

   My barge was sixty feet in length, and not more than twelve in the widest part; by taking away one thwart beam near the stern, laying a floor two feet below the gunwale, and raising an arched roof about seven feet above the floor, a commodious room was formed, fourteen feet long, and ten wide, with a closet behind it; […]

   1800, Michael Symes, chapter VII, in An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, by the Governor-General of India, in the Year 1795, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., […]; and sold by Messrs. G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol, […]; and J[ohn] Wright, […], →OCLC, page 223

   I looked down into the Old Town [a canoe]; there was no yoke, only a straight ash thwart.

   2015, Cliff Jacobson, “Outfitting and Customizing Your Canoe”, in Canoeing Wild Rivers: The 30th Anniversary Guide to Expedition Canoeing in North America, 5th edition, Guildford, Conn.; Helena, Mont.: Falcon Guides, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 66

3. rareAn act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle.