thwart
Plural: thwarts
Noun
- a crosspiece spreading the gunnels of a boat; used as a seat in a rowboat
- A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.
- 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.
- An act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle.
Verb
Verb Forms: thwarted, thwarting, thwarts
- To prevent someone from accomplishing something; to frustrate.
- hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
- To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.
- To place (something) across (another thing); to position crosswise.
- To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.
- To move (something) across or counter to; to cross.
Adj
- Placed or situated across something else; cross, oblique, transverse.
- Of people: having a tendency to oppose; obstinate, perverse, stubborn.
- Of situations or things: adverse, unfavourable, unlucky.
Adv
- Across the direction of travel or length of; athwart, crosswise, obliquely, transversely.
Prep
- Across, athwart.
Examples
- A well-made dugout canoe rarely needs a thwart.
- An arrow thwarts the air.
- His opponent tried to THWART his bingo attempt by blocking a key square.
- Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the thunderstorm.
- The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row.
- The police thwarted the would-be assassin.
Origin / Etymology
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.
Synonyms
baffle, bilk, cross, cross thwart, foil, frustrate, queer, scotch, spoil, adamant, ardent, balk#Verb, behedge, bent on, bloody-minded, blunt, bullheaded, certain, chronic, confirmed, confound, cross-grained, dash, delay, determined, diehard, difficult, diminish, discomfit, disconcert, dogged, down on one's luck, foil#Verb_2, forestay, forslow, fortuneless, froward, get in the way, hamper, handicap, hapless, hard-hearted, hard-nosed, hardheaded, headstrong, hinder, hold up, hurt, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-starred, immovable, impair, impede, inauspicious, incalcitrant, incommode, infelicitous, inflexible, infortunate, insistent, interfere, intervene, intractable, intransigent, intrepid, inveterate, irrefragable, lessen, let, luckless, mar, misadventurous, mischanceful, misfortuned, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, obstreperous, obstruct, overslaugh, peak, peevish, peremptory, persistent, pertinacious, pigheaded, preclude, prevene, prevent, prohibit, recalcitrant, reduce, refractory, resolute, resolved, restrict, retard, rigid, scuttle, self-willed, slow down, snakebit, stalwart, staunch, stay, steadfast, steady, stubborn, stubborn as a mule, sullen, tenacious, terminal, thaught, thawt, thoft, thran, thwart, thwarten, tough, truculent, umbeset, unbending, unchancy, uncompromising, undermine, unfavourable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, unpropitious, untoward, unyielding, vehement, wanchancy, weaken, wilful, willful, worsen
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 12
thwart: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordthwart: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
thwart: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary