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Thwart vs Avoid - What's the difference?

thwart | avoid |

As verbs the difference between thwart and avoid

is that thwart is to prevent; to halt; to cause to fail; to foil; to frustrate while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.

As a noun thwart

is (nautical) a brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (breadth) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail.

As an adjective thwart

is situated or placed across something else; transverse; oblique.

As an adverb thwart

is obliquely; transversely; athwart.

thwart

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To prevent; to halt; to cause to fail; to foil; to frustrate.
  • * South
    • The proposals of the one never thwarted the inclinations of the other.
  • * , chapter=22
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black), title=Internal Combustion
    • , chapter=2 citation , passage=More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=David Ornstein, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Arsenal 1-0 Everton , passage=Everton were now firmly on the back foot and it required some sharp work from Johnny Heitinga and Phil Jagielka to thwart Walcott and Thomas Vermaelen.}}
  • (obsolete) To move across or counter to; to cross.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • Swift as a shooting star / In autumn thwarts the night.

    Synonyms

    * See also * foil, frustrate, impede, spoil

    Derived terms

    * athwart * athwartships * thwarter * thwartsome

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) A brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (breadth) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail.
    • A well made doughout canoe rarely needs a thwart .
  • (nautical) A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.
    • The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row.

    Related terms

    * beam

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Situated or placed across something else; transverse; oblique.
  • * Milton
    • Moved contrary with thwart obliquities.
  • (figurative) Perverse; crossgrained.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Obliquely; transversely; athwart.
    • (Milton)

    References

    avoid

    English

    Verb

  • To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.
  • :I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
  • *1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:
  • *:The devyllsayde unto hym: all these will I geve the, iff thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Jesus unto hym. Avoyde Satan.
  • *Milton
  • *:What need a man forestall his date of grief, / And run to meet what he would most avoid ?
  • *Macaulay
  • *:He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= England 1-0 Ukraine , passage=England could have met world and European champions Spain but that eventuality was avoided by Sweden's 2-0 win against France, and Rooney's first goal in a major tournament since scoring twice in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon at Euro 2004.}}
  • (obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
  • :(Wyclif)
  • To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
  • *Spenser
  • *:How can these grants of the king's be avoided ?
  • (legal) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
  • :(Blackstone)
  • (obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
  • :(Sir Thomas Browne)
  • (obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
  • *:
  • *:Anone they encountred to gyders / and he with the reed shelde smote hym soo hard that he bare hym ouer to the erthe / There with anone came another Knyght of the castel / and he was smyten so sore that he auoyded his fadel
  • *Francis Bacon
  • *:Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room.
  • (obsolete) To get rid of.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
  • (obsolete) To become void or vacant.

    • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Derived terms

    * avoid like the plague

    External links

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