Dictionary

thwarter en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈθwɔː(ɹ).tə(ɹ)/ (UK)

Etymology

From thwart + -er.

Meanings

1. A person or thing that thwarts.
   • In this Satan continues his Old Testament role of thwarter and obstructor, as he does later against Paul (1 Thess. 2.18) 1988, Jeffrey Burton Russell, The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History, →ISBN, page 44:
   • As an orthodox clergyman Malthus was therefore hard put to it to account for our being launched into existence with a sex thirst that is a snare and a thwarter of human happiness. 1927, Edward Alsworth Ross, Standing Room Only?, page 6:
   • Hicks is both thwarter and thwartee of Daedalean plots. Aboard a train, the rhythm of the wheels sounds to him like "wottachump, wottachump, wottachump." 2025 October 2, Dwight Garner, “Book Review: 'Shadow Ticket,' by Thomas Pynchon”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Oct 2025:
   • Similarly, Ripley, as the thwarter of the wishes of the godlike Company, proclaims herself as the adversary of this narrative. 2006, Ximena Gallardo-C., C. Jason Smith, Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley, →ISBN, page 151:
   • By his strong remonstrances he saved many a poor fellow from the rebel's crime and doom ; but not without imminent peril to himself. Governments did not like the thwarter of their purposes. 1852, William Hepworth Dixon, John Howard, and the Prison-world of Europe, page 347:
   • If Paul, in diſmiſſing, had conſidered only his natural cruelty, or his folly, real or affected, perhaps the meaſure would have been applauded but he appeared to aim at puniſing the man devoted to his mother, and the thwarter of his military innovations, which were too abrupt and too ill-directed 1802, (Author unknown), “Character of Suvarrof”, in Edinburgh Magazine: or Literary Miscellany, page 119:
2. (obsolete) A disease in sheep, characterised by trembling, or convulsion.

Forms