thwart

adj

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; […]”

2. (dated, figuratively)Of people: having a tendency to oppose; obstinate, perverse, stubborn.

   “[…] 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, […]”

   “[…] 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; […]”

3. (dated, figuratively)Of situations or things: adverse, unfavourable, unlucky.

adv

1. (not-comparable, obsolete)Across 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.”

prep

1. (archaic, poetic)Across, athwart.

verb

1. (transitive)To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.

   “Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the thunderstorm.”

   “The police thwarted the would-be assassin.”

   “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; […]”

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

   “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?”

2. (obsolete, transitive)To place (something) across (another thing); to position crosswise.
3. (also, figuratively, obsolete, transitive)To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.
4. (ambitransitive, obsolete)To move (something) across or counter to; to cross.

   “An arrow thwarts the air.”

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

noun

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

   “The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

2. A 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.”

   “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].”

   “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; […]”

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

3. (rare)An act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle.