▪ I. thwarting, vbl. n.
(ˈθwɔːtɪŋ)
[f. thwart v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb thwart.
† 1. Going athwart, crossing. Obs. rare—1.
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. xlvi. 193 (Harl. MS.) By the Ringe we muste vndirstonde feithe, for that owithe to be Rounde like a Ringe, and with oute eny twartynge. |
b. Cross-ploughing.
| 1847 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. ii. 318 After the first thwarting of the fallow (cross-ploughing),..the clods are worked..into about the size of a hen's egg. |
2. Opposition; hindrance, impediment; defeating, frustration.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. lii. (1869) 200 Þe arguynge, ne þe thuartinge is no thing worth ayens us, ne ayens deth neither. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxviii. (1887) 109 A number of lettes and thwartings which art did prescribe. 1609 Douland Ornith. Microl. 79 A Discord..is the hard and rough thwarting of two sounds not mingled with themselues. 1653 R. Sanders Physiogn. 53 Great thwartings and misfortunes by the means of women. 1825 Scott Jrnl. 23 Dec., Those thwartings are what men in public life do not like to endure. |
▪ II. thwarting, ppl. a.
(ˈθwɔːtɪŋ)
[f. thwart v. + -ing2.]
That thwarts, in various senses.
1. Lying or passing crosswise; crossing, traversing, transverse; of the eyes: crossed, squinting. Obs. or arch.
| c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. iv. (1869) 176 With purblynde eyen and thwartinge may not be hool lookinge. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis i. i. 3, I fled thorow the bushes, where the thwarting bowes loosened the knots of my hayre. 1632 Lithgow Trav. (1906) 278 Slaine and hung up on two standing and a thwarting tree. 1653 R. Sanders Physiogn. 48 If it [middle line of the palm] be right, continued, and without thwarting lines. |
2. Conflicting, opposing, obstructing; perverse; frustrating, baffling; adverse, untoward.
| 1530 Palsgr. 306/2 Brablyng thwartyng or quarellyng, noyseux. Ibid. 327/2 Twhartynge or contraryeng, captieux. 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iv. vi. 22 That the people of this blessed Land May not be punisht with my thwarting starres. 1658 Whole Duty of Man iv. §3 To entangle themselves by taking one oath cross and thwarting to another. 1718 Free-thinker No. 61 ¶9 A Thwarting, Cavilling Temper only promotes Contention. 1804 J. Grahame Sabbath (1839) 23/1 The thwarting surge Dash'd, boiling, on the labouring bark. 1878 J. R. Seeley Stein II. 4 The very moment when the thwarting power..visibly intervenes. |
Hence ˈthwartingly adv., transversely; perversely; adversely.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 359/1 Fetch no winde⁓lesses, nor goe anye by-wayes and as it were thwartingly. 1618 T. Adams Chr. Walk Wks. 1862 II. 407 The over-precise are so thwartingly cross to the superstitious..that they will scarce do a good work, because a heretic doth it. 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. II. xiii. 359 These Films..laid one upon another, some in a direct, and others thwartingly and in a transverse Position. |