Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use athwart in a sentence

16 example sentences · adverb, preposition

Athwart means from side to side, often in an oblique manner; across or over. Example: “Above, the stars appeared to move slowly athwart.”

Examples of athwart by meaning

adverbFrom side to side, often in an oblique manner; across or over.

  • Above, the stars appeared to move slowly athwart.
  • We placed one log on the ground, and another athwart, forming a crude cross.
  • This, too, is the genius of conservative legal reasoning: It can stand athwart history yelling breathlessly about original meaning, then sprint blindly toward the nearest convenient exception.2026 July 1, Jack Loftus, “The US Constitution Is for Simple Folk Still Burdened by the Belief That Words Have Meaning”, in Timothy...

adverbAcross the path of something, so as to impede progress.

  • a fleet standing athwart our course
  • One of the world’s largest container ships was wedged athwart the Suez Canal on March 23rd, blown off course by high winds.2021 March 25, “A giant container ship accidentally blocks the Suez Canal”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC...
  • The Ever Given is standing athwart one of the most important shipping lanes in the world, yelling “Oops!” She is ruining everything, and at least for the moment, she cannot be (un)stopped.2021 March 25, Amanda Mull, “The Big, Stuck Boat Is Glorious: The Ever Given is very big and very stuck.”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The...

adverbAgainst the anticipated or appropriate course of something; improperly, perversely, wrongly.

  • Leo isn’t standing athwart Skynet yelling “Stop”; he’s blessing A.I., to a point, while warning that the line between Babel and Jerusalem runs through every nation, every corporation and every human heart.2026 May 27, Ross Douthat, “Pope Leo’s A.I. Vision Might Not Be Strange Enough”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

prepositionFrom one side to the other side of; across.

  • The stars moved slowly athwart the sky.

prepositionAcross the course or path of, so as to oppose.

  • It is the voice of human experience within us, judging and condemning all gods that stand athwart the pathway along which it feels itself to be advancing.1902, William James, “Lectures XIV and XV: The Value of Saintliness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […]...
  • But the presentation of these wares cut ostentatiously athwart conventional lines.2005, Tony Judt, “The Spectre of Revolution”, in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, New York, N.Y.: The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 395

prepositionAcross the line of a ship's course, or across its deck.

  • The damaged mainmast fell athwart the deck, destroying the ship’s boat.

More sentences with athwart

  • The techno-thriller and its practitioners may be standing athwart.1993, William F. Ryan, “The Techno-Thriller”, in The Virginia Quarterly Review. From the entry technothriller
  • A ‘bend sinister’ ran athwart his reputation as a priest.1904, Warwick Deeping, Love Among the Ruins, page 101. From the entry bend sinister
  • He would see himself the image of the ageless one as, athwart and abrazened, the tally-caster coast of crimson breeze bespoke its truthsome squeal.2003, J. B. Miller, The Satanic Nurses. From the entry truthsome
  • A gaudy grotto of blocked canvas huefully painted — green serpents with flame eyes, rosy, bustious nymphs caught athwart aggressive fish tails.1927, Samuel Ornitz, A Yankee passional. From the entry huefully
  • Too long unknown, unmapped and undescribed, a fault block of broad, biangular pattern has recently been outlined lying athwart the lower waters of Drennon Creek in north-eastern Henry County, Kentucky.1965, Willard Rouse Jillson, Biangular Faulting in the Outer Bluegrass Region of Northern Kentucky, page 5. From the entry biangular

Meaning of athwart

  1. adverb From side to side, often in an oblique manner; across or over.
  2. adverb Across the path of something, so as to impede progress.
  3. adverb Against the anticipated or appropriate course of something; improperly, perversely, wrongly.

Full definition of athwart

Questions about athwart in a sentence

How do you use athwart in a sentence?
Athwart is used as an adverb and preposition. For example: “Above, the stars appeared to move slowly athwart.”
What is a short sentence with athwart?
“a fleet standing athwart our course”
What does athwart mean?
Athwart means from side to side, often in an oblique manner; across or over.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: athwart (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use athwart in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/athwart. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.