athwart

English [edit]

From a- + thwart.

athwart (comparative more athwart, superlative most athwart)

(archaic) From side to side; across.

Above, the stars appeared to move slowly athwart.

We placed one log on the ground, and another athwart, forming a crude cross.
(archaic) Across the path (of something).

From side to side, across

athwart

(archaic) From one side to the other side of.

The stars moved slowly athwart the sky.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iii:
  
  Knit with a golden bauldricke, which forelay / Athwart her snowy brest, and did diuide / Her daintie paps [...].
(nautical) Across the line of a ship's course or across its deck.

The damaged mainmast fell athwart the deck, destroying the ship's boat.
(archaic) 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.

1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
1907, Robert Chambers, chapter 5, The Younger Set^[1]:

Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume ; … ; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

From one side to the other side of

Across the path or course of; opposing