[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, trans. 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. Shaks., 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 Thwartingly adv., transversely; perversely; adversely.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 359/1. Fetch no windelesses, nor goe anye by-wayes and as it were thwartingly.
1618. T. Adams, Chr. Walk, Wks. 1862, II. 407. The overprecise are so thwartingly cross to the superstitious … that they will scarce do a good work, because a heretic doth it.
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., II. xiii. 359. These Films … laid one upon another, some in a direct, and others thwartingly and in a transverse Position.
1918. Daily Oklahoman, 27 May, 4/2. Personal consideration may not stand thwartingly in the way of the Greater Good.
