ATHWART

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does athwart mean? 

• ATHWART (adverb)
  The adverb ATHWART has 2 senses:

1. at right angles to the center line of a ship

2. at an oblique angle

  Familiarity information: ATHWART used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ATHWART (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

At right angles to the center line of a ship

Sense 2

Meaning:

At an oblique angle

Synonyms:

aslant; athwart; obliquely

Context example:

the sun shone aslant into his face

 Context examples 

She lies athwart the lands, and her shadow is over the seas.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawse at the latter end of it?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Porpoises and dolphins, I believe, will be frequently observed athwart our Bows; and, either on the starboard or the larboard quarter, objects of interest will be continually descried.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Before the sun dipped below the black mass of Kettleness, standing boldly athwart the western sky, its downward way was marked by myriad clouds of every sunset-colour—flame, purple, pink, green, violet, and all the tints of gold; with here and there masses not large, but of seemingly absolute blackness, in all sorts of shapes, as well outlined as colossal silhouettes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

We knew she carried fourteen boats to our five (we were one short through the desertion of Wainwright), and she began dropping them far to leeward of our last boat, continued dropping them athwart our course, and finished dropping them far to windward of our first weather boat.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A blast upon the bugle summoned the bowmen to counsel, and they gathered in little knots and groups around a great fallen tree which lay athwart the glade.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“But,” asked Dick, “when we do lay 'em athwart, what are we to do with 'em, anyhow?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Mr. Peggotty, with the shadows of the leaves playing athwart his face, made a surprised inclination of the head towards my aunt, as an acknowledgement of her good opinion; then took up the thread he had relinquished.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

All this Alleyne listened to, until the dark keep of Twynham towered above them in the gloaming, and they saw the red sun lying athwart the rippling Avon.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Alleyne, looking back, saw that the murderer had drawn bread and cheese from his scrip, and was silently munching it, with the protecting cross still hugged to his breast, while the other, black and grim, stood in the sunlit road and threw his dark shadow athwart him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)