thwart
/θwɔːt/
Dictionary
noun
- A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.
"The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row."
- A brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam 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."
- An act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle.
verb
- To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.
"Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the thunderstorm."
- 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.
"An arrow thwarts the air."
adjective
- 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.
adverb
- Across the direction of travel or length of; athwart, crosswise, obliquely, transversely.
preposition
- Across, athwart.
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