thwart

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:

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

[…] 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]:

[…] 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:

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

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

en-adj

thwart (comparative more thwart, superlative most thwart)

more thwart (comparative)
most thwart (superlative)

кос

placed or situated across something else — see also oblique, transverse

пречещ

having a tendency to oppose — see also obstinate, perverse

Middle English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The adjective is derived from Early Middle English thwert, thwerte, thuart, thurt, thurte, thwart, thwarte, twart, twarte, twhart, twhert, twort, þuert, þwerrt, þwert, þwerte, ðwert (“crosswise, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate”), borrowed from Old Norse þvert (“across, athwart”), originally the neuter form of þverr (“across, transverse”), from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz (“cross; adverse”) (altered or influenced by Proto-Germanic *þweraną (“to stir; to swirl; to turn”)), from Proto-Germanic *þerh-, probably from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
The English adjective is cognate with Danish tvær (“sullen, sulky”), Gothic 𐌸𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍃 (þwairs, “angry”), Middle Dutch dwers, dwars (modern Dutch dwars (“crosswise, transverse; slantwise, askew; stubbornly disobedient”)), Norwegian tvert, tvært, Old Frisian þweres, dwers (Saterland Frisian twars, West Frisian dwers, dwerz (“across, to the other side of; beyond”)), Middle Low German dwers, dwars (Low German dwars (“contrary; cross-grained”)), Old English þweorh (“transverse; perverse; angry, cross”), Old High German twer (Middle High German twer, quer, modern German quer (“crosswise; cross”)), Swedish tvär (“across, transverse; of a curve: sharp; immediate, sudden; grumpy, stubborn”). It is related to queer; also Proto-West Germanic *þwerh,
The adverb is derived from Middle English thwert, ywerte (“crosswise; across the grain”); the Middle English Dictionary suggests the adverb was derived from the adjective, while the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the adverb is attested earlier than the adjective.
The verb is derived from Middle English thwerten, thwert, thwarten, þwerten (“to lie across; to oppose, to thwart”), and further from the adverb and perhaps also the adjective.
Noun sense 1 (“a seat across a boat on which a rower may sit”) may be derived from the adverb or adjective, from the position of the seat across the length of the boat, while noun sense 3 (“(rare) an act of thwarting”) is derived from the verb. Compare Middle English thwert (“in in thwert: crosswise”), from the adjective.


thwart

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:

(obsolete) Across the direction of travel or length of; athwart, crosswise, obliquely, transversely.

косо

across the direction of travel or length of — see also athwart


thwart

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; […]

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; republished [Glasgow]: [ […] Hunterian Club], [1876], →OCLC, folio 13, verso, page 34:

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:

The film ends with the colorful deaths of Nico's enemies after he thwarts their attempts to assassinate a U.S. Senator investigating ties between drug dealers and the CIA.

2004, Peter Bondanella, “Wise Guys: Hollywood Italian Gangsters”, in Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos, New York, N.Y.: Continuum International Publishing Group, →ISBN, pages 231–232:

More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

2006, Edwin Black, “Power Struggle”, in Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, →OL:

Everton were now firmly on the back foot and it required some sharp work from Johnny Heitinga and Phil Jagielka to thwart [Theo] Walcott and Thomas Vermaelen.

2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 – 0 Everton”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2011-12-13:

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

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

(transitive, also figuratively, obsolete) To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.

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, […]

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:

(transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To move (something) across or counter to; to cross.

en-verb

thwart (third-person singular simple present thwarts, present participle thwarting, simple past and past participle thwarted)

thwarts (present singular third-person)
thwarting (participle present)
thwarted (participle past)
thwarted (past)
thwart (infinitive)


thwart

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.

[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:

(nautical) A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.

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].

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:

(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.

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

Lake Maria State Park
Middle English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary