Meaning of thwart in English | Powered by Free Dictionary API

noun

• A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.

  Example: 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.

  Example: 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.

  Example: 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.

  Example: 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.