Word of the Day

: August 17, 2018

thwart

verb THWORT

What It Means

1 a : to oppose successfully : defeat the hopes or aspirations of

b : to run counter to so as to effectively oppose or baffle : contravene

2 : to pass through or across

thwart in Context

The baby howled when her mother thwarted her in her effort to crawl up the stairs.

"… nearly 1,850 firefighters already working the blaze planned to build 'indirect lines'— containment lines placed in front of the fire's active edge—but were faced with the possibility that their efforts could be thwarted by the weather." — Sarah Ravani, The San Francisco Chronicle, 20 July 2018

Did You Know?

Thwart and its synonyms foil and frustrate all suggest checking or defeating another's plan or preventing the achievement of a goal. Foil implies checking or defeating so as to discourage future efforts ("the police foiled the attempted robbery"), while frustrate suggests making all efforts, however vigorous or persistent, futile or ineffectual ("frustrated attempts at government reform"). Thwart usually indicates frustration caused by opposition ("the army thwarted an attempted coup").