adv. [f. ALTAR + WISE.] After the manner of an altar; in the position of an altar in a church.
1562. in Strype, Ann. Ref. (1824), I. I. xxvii. 475. That the table from henceforth stand no more altarwise.
1637. Laud, Sp. in Star-Ch. (T.). The holy table ought to stand at the upper end of the quire, north or south, or altarwise. [See also ALTAR 2 b.]
1697. Dryden, Virgil (1806), III. 161. In altar-wise, a stately pile they rear.
1859. Masson, Milton, I. 629. Fixing the communion-table altarwise at the east end of the chancel.
