thwart

1. (obsolete) Across the direction of travel or length of; athwart, crosswise, obliquely, transversely.Examples: "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."not-comparableobsolete

1. (archaic or poetic) Across, athwart.archaicpoetic

1. (transitive) To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.Examples: "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; […]"Synonyms: balk#Verb, foil#Verb_2, spoil, cross, discomfit, disconcert, baffle, scuttleAntonyms: promotetransitive

2. (transitive, obsolete) To place (something) across (another thing); to position crosswise.obsoletetransitive

3. (transitive, also figuratively, obsolete) To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.Synonyms: behedge, blunt, delay, difficult, diminish, forestay, interfere, intervenealsofigurativelyobsoletetransitive

4. (ambitransitive, obsolete) To move (something) across or counter to; to cross.Examples: "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, […]"ambitransitiveobsolete

1. (nautical) A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.Examples: "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."Synonyms: thaught, thawt, thoft

2. (nautical) 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.Examples: "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; […]"

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