a·thwart / əˈ[unvoicedth]wôrt/ • prep. 1. from side to side of; across: a long counter thrown athwart the entranceway.2. in opposition to; counter to: these statistics run sharply athwart conventional presumptions.• adv. 1. across from side to side; transversely: one table running athwart was all the room would hold.2. so as to be perverse or contradictory: our words ran athwart and we ended up at cross purposes.

athwart across. XV (first in Sc.). f. A-1 + THWART1, prob. after ON. um þvert ‘over in a transverse direction’.