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from side to side; crosswise.
Nautical.

at right angles to the fore-and-aft line; across.
broadside to the wind because of equal and opposite pressures of wind and tide:
a ship riding athwart.

perversely; awry; wrongly.
from side to side of; across.
Nautical. across the direction or course of.
in opposition to; contrary to.
Historical Examples

For twenty years that sad and beautiful face haunted me, and it haunts me yet athwart life and death.
Montezuma’s Daughter H. Rider Haggard

Thus she was the first to note a shadow fall athwart the doorway.
Marjorie Dean, College Sophomore Pauline Lester

In this way it might be literally possible ‘to hear a shadow fall athwart the stillness.’
Heroes of the Telegraph J. Munro

They knew that athwart the Khalifa’s writ was stencilled “Made in Germany.”
The New World of Islam Lothrop Stoddard

athwart the glimmering air and dim With wistful eyes she looked on him.
Poems by the Way William Morris

Very devout too; honest to the bone, athwart all her prejudices.
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XIV. (of XXI.) Thomas Carlyle

We now-a-days see it as one sees a country, athwart and in perspective, and from the side; he saw it from above and from below.
Spare Hours John Brown

Gigantic behind them, athwart the carrier lay the captured aeropile.
When the Sleeper Wakes Herbert George Wells

athwart his laughing words came from the lower end of the board a deep and harsh voice.
Sir Mortimer Mary Johnston

Did the shadow of the axe or gibbet fall athwart his dreams?
The Fifth of November Charles S. Bentley

adverb
transversely; from one side to another
preposition
across the path or line of (esp a ship)
in opposition to; against
adv.

late 15c., from a- (1) + thwart.