athwart adv

1 at right angles to the center line of a ship

2 at an oblique angle; "the sun shone aslant into his face" [syn: obliquely, aslant]

English

Etymology

From a- + thwart.

Pronunciation

• a UK /əˈθwɔːt/

Adverb

1. From side to side; across.

   The stars moved slowly athwart.

   We placed one log on the ground, and another athwart, forming a crude cross.

2. Across the path (of something).

Preposition

athwart

1. From one side to the other side of.

   The stars moved slowly athwart the sky.

2. Across the line of (a ship's course).
3. Across the path or course of; opposing.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, p. 283:

     It is the voice of human experience within us, judging and condemning all gods that stand athwart the pathway along which it feels itself to be advancing.

Quotations

• 1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

  But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

  Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !

across, across the grain, adverse to, against, against the grain, against the tide, against the wind, at cross-purposes, at cross-purposes with, at daggers, at daggers drawn, at issue, at odds, at variance, at war with, athwartships, bendwise, beyond, bias, biased, biaswise, catercorner, catercornered, con, contra, contrariwise, contrawise, counter, counter to, crisscross, cross, cross-grained, crossway, crossways, crosswise, dead against, diagonal, eyeball-to-eyeball, in conflict with, in confrontation, in hostile array, in opposition, in opposition to, kittycorner, oblique, obliquely, opposed to, over, overthwart, sideways, sidewise, slant, thwart, thwartly, thwartways, transversal, transverse, transversely, traverse, up in arms, versus, vis-a-vis, with crossed bayonets