EN

Synonyms for thwart

49 synonyms
5 antonyms
5 meanings

verb
adjective
noun

Most common

cross foil spoil confound impede frustrate

Synonyms by meaning

Verb

1. Cross — to cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent

cross, foil, spoil, confound, scuttle, traverse, dash, balk US, baulk UK, bilk, scotch, mock, queer, torpedo, disconcert, hamstring, discomfit, baffle dated

2. Impede — to hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose

impede, frustrate, prevent, undermine, hinder, obstruct, stymie, oppose, counteract, resist, interfere, stop, elude, preclude, hamper, prohibit, contravene, retard, hurt, stay, inhibit, restrain

Other

defeat, disappoint, stick

Adjective

1. Froward — of people, having a tendency to oppose; obstinate, perverse, stubborn

cross-grained, froward dated

2. Untoward — of situations or things, adverse, unfavourable, unlucky

untoward, unpropitious

Noun

1. Thaught — A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit

thaught, thoft UK

Antonyms

promote, conspire, facilitate

All antonyms of thwart →

Definitions

v. 1
To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.
The police thwarted the would-be assassin.
v. 2
To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.
adj. 1
Of people: having a tendency to oppose; obstinate, perverse, stubborn.
n. 1
A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.
The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row.

Related words

Word family: thwarter thwartful thwartness thwartsome thwartwise

Forms

Plural: thwarts → thaughts, thofts…
Past participle: thwarted
e.g. thwarted → crossed, foiled, spoilt, confounded…

Example sentences

foil Yanni found a new job at an aluminum foil factory.
scuttle Crawl forward is done much more agilely - scuttle like a cockroach!
impede He has tried to impede an official investigation.
frustrate Tom secretly attempted to frustrate Mary's plans.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
thwart		rising
foil		falling
scuttle		rising
confound		rising
bilk		steady
impede		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters: stop¹, stay¹, hurt¹, dash¹, mock¹, foil¹, balk¹, bilk¹
5 letters: cross¹, stick¹, spoil¹, queer¹, elude², baulk, thoft
6 letters: defeat², resist², oppose², scotch¹, hinder², retard², hamper², impede², baffle², stymie²
7 letters: prevent², torpedo³, inhibit³, scuttle², froward, thaught
8 letters: prohibit³, traverse², restrain², obstruct², preclude², untoward³, confound²
9 letters: interfere³, undermine³, hamstring², frustrate², discomfit
10 letters: disappoint³, counteract³, contravene³, disconcert³
12 letters: unpropitious

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (elude² = 2 syllables).