In a direction crossing through or past the hawseholes of a ship; at cross purposes or in a tangled way.
From 'athwart' (across) plus 'hawse' (the part of a ship's bow where anchor cables pass through). This highly specialized nautical term combines two technical elements to describe a specific problematic ship configuration.
This is peak nautical jargon—it describes the chaotic state when anchor cables are tangled across each other instead of running cleanly, and sailors developed this wonderfully specific term to capture the frustration of that exact problem.
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