overthwart
English
Etymology
From Middle English overthwart, overthwert, overtwert, overquert, overwhart, equivalent to over- + thwart. Compare Dutch overdwaars (“across”), Danish overtvært (“across”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /əʊvəˈθwɔːt/
Preposition
overthwart
- (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;
Translations
from one side to the other of
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Adverb
overthwart (comparative more overthwart, superlative most overthwart)
- (archaic) From side to side.
- Synonyms: across, athwart
- 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, London, Canto 2, p. 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;
Adjective
overthwart (comparative more overthwart, superlative most overthwart)
- (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 228714942, 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, p. 65,
- […] we whisper, for fear our over-thwart Neighbours
- Should hear us cry, Liberty, and betray us to the Government.
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- (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 8728872, lines 35–38, page 116:
- 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, 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.
Noun
overthwart (plural overthwarts)
- (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. […]
- 1557, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, “Praise of meane and constant estate” in Songes and sonettes, London: Richard Tottel,