overthwart

From Middle English overthwart, overthwert, overtwert, overquert, overwhart, equivalent to over- +‎ thwart. Compare Dutch overdwaars (“across”), Danish overtvært (“across”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈθwɔːt/

overthwart

1. (archaic, UK dialect) From one side to the other of.

   Synonyms: across, athwart

   • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain‎, London: James Allestry, Book 2, p. 42:

     […] entrance, and access on all sides, by the felling of huge Trees overthwart one another, was quite barr’d up;

overthwart (comparative more overthwart, superlative most overthwart)

1. (archaic) From side to side.

   Synonyms: across, athwart

   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras‎, London: Canto 2, page 36:

     For when a Gyant’s slain in fight,
     And mow’d orethwart, or cleft downright,
     It is a heavy case, no doubt,
     A man should have his Brains beat out,
     Because he’s tall, and has large Bones;

   • 1876, William Long, Esq., Stonehenge and its Barrows. From the Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Magazine, etc. [With maps and wood-engravings.]‎, →OCLC, page 25:

     [...] they are ioyned by two and two together, and every couple sustaineth a third stone lying overthwart, gatewise, which is fastened by the meanes of tenons that enter into mortaises of those stones not closed with any cement.

overthwart (comparative more overthwart, superlative most overthwart)

1. (obsolete) Having a transverse position; placed or situated across; hence, opposite.
   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 9:

     By and by after his iumping vppon them, the Saxons for that Garianonum, or Yarmoth that had giuen vp the ghoſt, in thoſe ſlymie plaſhie fieldes of Gorlſtone trowled vp a ſecond Yarmouth, abutting on the Weſt ſide of the ſhore of this great Yarmouth, that is, but feeling the ayre to be vnholſome and diſagreeing with them, to the ouerwhart brink or verge of the flud, that writ all one ſtile of Cerdicke ſands, they diſlodged with bagge and baggage, and there layde the foundatiõ of a third Yarmouth Quam nulla poteſt abolere vetuſtas, that I hope will holde vp her head till Doomeſday.

   • 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Heroe‎, London: Jacob Tonson, act V, page 65:

     […] we whisper, for fear our over-thwart Neighbours
     Should hear us cry, Liberty, and betray us to the Government.

2. (obsolete) Crossing in kind or disposition.

   Synonyms: adverse, opposing, perverse

   • 1513, John Skelton, Agaynst the Scottes; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 116, lines 35–38:

     So prowde of hart,
     So overthwart,
     So out of frame,
     So voyde of shame, […]

   • 1702, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England‎, Oxford, published 1717, Volume 1, Part 1, p. 83:

     He had pass’d two or three Acts of Parliament, which had much lessen’d the Authority and Dependence of the Nobility, and great Men, and incens’d, and dispos’d them proportionably to cross, and oppose any Proposition, which would be most grateful; and that overthwart humour was enough discover’d to rule in the breasts of many, who made the greatest professions.

overthwart (plural overthwarts)

1. (obsolete) That which is overthwart; an adverse circumstance; opposition.
   • 1557, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, “Praise of meane and constant estate”, in Songes and sonettes‎, London: Richard Tottel:

     A hart wel stayd, in ouerthwartes depe,
     Hopeth amendes: in swete, doth feare the sowre.

   • 1611, John Donne, An Anatomy of the World‎, London: Samuel Macham:

     We thinke the heavens enjoy their Sphericall
     Their round proportion embracing all.
     But yet their various and perplexed course,
     Observ’d in divers ages doth enforce
     Men to finde out so many Eccentrique parts,
     Such divers downe-right lines, such overthwarts,
     As disproportion that pure forme. […]