Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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adj
Placed or situated across something else; cross, oblique, transverse.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Of people: having a tendency to oppose; obstinate, perverse, stubborn.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: cross-grained, froward, adamant, ardent, grim, bent on, bloody-minded, bullheaded, certain, chronic, confirmed, determined, diehard, dogged, hard-hearted, hard-nosed, hardheaded, headstrong, immovable, incalcitrant, inflexible, irrefragable, insistent, intractable, intransigent, intrepid, inveterate, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, obstreperous, peevish, peremptory, persistent, pertinacious, pigheaded, recalcitrant, refractory, resolute, resolved, rigid, self-willed, stalwart, staunch, steadfast, steady, stubborn, stubborn as a mule, sullen, tenacious, terminal, thran, thwart, tough, truculent, unbending, uncompromising, unyielding, vehement, wilful, willful
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Of situations or things: adverse, unfavourable, unlucky.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dated, figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: unpropitious, untoward, down on one's luck, fortuneless, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, infelicitous, infortunate, hapless, luckless, misadventurous, mischanceful, misfortuned, peak, snakebit, thwart, unchancy, unfavourable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, wanchancy
Antonyms: none provided
adv
Across the direction of travel or length of; athwart, crosswise, obliquely, transversely.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: nautical, transport
Synonyms: thaught, thawt, thoft
Antonyms: none provided
noun
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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: nautical, transport
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
prep
Across, athwart.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, poetic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: balk, foil, spoil, cross, discomfit, disconcert, baffle, scuttle, confound, dash, traverse, hamstring, mock, queer, torpedo
Antonyms: promote
verb
To place (something) across (another thing); to position crosswise.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: also, figuratively, obsolete, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: behedge, blunt, crimp, delay, difficult, diminish, forestay, interfere, intervene, forslow, frustrate, get in the way, hamper, handicap, hinder, hold up, hurt, impair, impede, incommode, lessen, let, mar, obstruct, overslaugh, preclude, prevene, prevent, prohibit, reduce, restrict, retard, slow down, stay, stymie, thwart, thwarten, umbeset, undermine, weaken, worsen
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To move (something) across or counter to; to cross.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: ambitransitive, obsolete
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a crosspiece spreading the gunnels of a boat; used as a seat in a rowboat
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: cross thwart
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: crosspiece
verb
hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: queer, spoil, scotch, foil, cross, frustrate, baffle, bilk
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: prevent, forestall, foreclose, preclude, forbid
Narrower terms: disappoint, let down, dash, short-circuit, ruin
History
From Middle English thwerte, from the adjective thwert (“obstinate, perverse”), from Old Norse þvert, neuter of þverr (“transverse”). Cognates The English adjective is cognate with Danish tvær (“sullen, sulky”), Gothic 𐌸𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌷𐍃 (þwairhs, “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,
Across languages
106 source translations are retained for this English entry.
