thwart
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /θwɔːt/
enpr: thwôrt
ipa: /θwɔɹt/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t
Forms: form: thwarts
form: thwarting
form: thwarted
form: thwarted
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: thwart
form: thwart
form: thwarted
form: thwart
form: thwartest
form: thwarted
form: thwartedst
form: thwarts
form: thwarteth
form: thwarted
form: thwart
form: thwarted
form: thwart
form: thwarted
form: thwart
form: -
form: thwarting
form: thwarted
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.
Senses: examples: text: Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the thunderstorm.
text: The police thwarted the would-be assassin.
text: 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; […]
ref: 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:
text: The Underſtanding and Will never diſagreed; for the Propoſals of the one never thwarted the Inclinations of the other.
ref: 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:
text: 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?
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 – 0 Everton”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2011:
synonyms: balk#Verb
foil#Verb_2
spoil
cross
discomfit
disconcert
baffle
scuttle
confound
dash
traverse
antonyms: promote
glosses: To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.
glosses: To place (something) across (another thing); to position crosswise.
synonyms: word: behedge
word: blunt
word: delay
word: difficult
word: diminish
word: forestay
word: interfere
word: intervene
word: forslow
word: frustrate
word: get in the way
word: hamper
word: handicap
word: hinder
word: hold up
word: hurt
word: impair
word: impede
word: incommode
word: lessen
word: let
word: mar
word: obstruct
word: overslaugh
word: preclude
word: prevene
word: prevent
word: prohibit
word: reduce
word: restrict
word: retard
word: slow down
word: stay
word: stymie
word: thwart
word: thwarten
word: umbeset
word: undermine
word: weaken
word: worsen
glosses: To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.
examples: text: An arrow thwarts the air.
text: Thither came Uriel, gliding through the Eeven
 On a Sun beam, ſwift as a ſhooting Starr
 In Autumn thwarts the night, […]
ref: 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:
glosses: To move (something) across or counter to; to cross.
Derived terms: thwarter
thwartsome