traverse
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
Pronunciation
All parts of speech:
- (General American) IPA(key): /tɹəˈvɝs/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /tɹəˈvɜːs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
- Hyphenation: tra‧verse
Alternative noun pronunciation:
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɹævɚs/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈtɹævəs/
- Hyphenation: trav‧erse
Noun
traverse (plural traverses)
- (climbing) A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent.
- (surveying) A series of points, with angles and distances measured between, traveled around a subject, usually for use as "control" i.e. angular reference system for later surveying work.
- 1811, Ben Jonson, The Dramatic Works: Embellished with Portraits, volume 4, page 571:
- At the entrance of the king, the first traverse was drawn, and the lower descent of the mountain discovered, which was the pendant of a hill to life, with divers boscages and grovets upon the steep or hanging grounds thereof.
- (obsolete) A screen or partition.
- 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Court:
- Than sholde ye see there pressynge in a pace / Of one and other that wolde this lady see, / Whiche sat behynde a traves of sylke fyne, / Of golde of tessew the fynest that myghte be […]
- 1613, Francis Beaumont, The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn:
- At the entrance of the king, / The first traverse was drawn.
- Something that thwarts or obstructs.
- He will succeed, as long as there are no unlucky traverses not under his control.
- (architecture) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.[1]
- (law) A formal denial of some matter of fact alleged by the opposite party in any stage of the pleadings. The technical words introducing a traverse are absque hoc ("without this", i.e. without what follows).
- (nautical) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course.
- (geometry) A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal.
- (military) In trench warfare, a defensive trench built to prevent enfilade.
- 1994, Stephen R. Wise, Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863, page 160:
- At night, when the Federal guns slowed their fire, the men created new traverses and bombproofs.
- (nautical) A traverse board.
- 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 7, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:
- The whole care of the vessel rested, therefore, upon me, and I was obliged to direct her by my former experience, not being able to work a traverse.
Related terms
Translations
References
- 1838, John Henry Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture
Verb
traverse (third-person singular simple present traverses, present participle traversing, simple past and past participle traversed)
- (transitive) To travel across, to go through, to pass through, particularly under difficult conditions.
- He will have to traverse the mountain to get to the other side.
- 1737, Alexander Pope, First Epistle on the Second Book of Horace, lines 396–397; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 197:
- What seas you travers'd, and what fields you fought! / Your country's peace how oft, how dearly bought!
- 1951 September, B. D. J. Walsh, “The Sudbury and Haverhill Line, Eastern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 619:
- Here the line is joined by the Colne Valley branch, and both tracks are carried into Haverhill station upon a high embankment from which the town can be seen on the south side. The twin tracks, after traversing a scissors crossover, become the down and up roads through the station, which possesses an extensive goods yard.
- 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, pages 56–57:
- The journey is worth an article in itself, but all I can give is a flavour of a railway which traverses a bleak but dramatic coastline that's regularly battered by the elements - especially around Parton, where the line is constantly threatened by the sea.
- (transitive, computing) To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly.
- to traverse all nodes in a network
- To lay in a cross direction; to cross.
- 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:
- The parts should be often traversed, or crossed, by the flowing of the folds.
- (weaponry) To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target.
- to traverse a cannon
- (climbing) To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope).
- (engineering, skiing) To (make a cutting, an incline) across the gradients of a sloped face at safe rate.
- the road traversed the face of the ridge as the right-of-way climbed the mountain
- The last run, weary, I traversed the descents in no hurry to reach the lodge.
- To act against; to thwart or obstruct.
- 1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal [pseudonyms; Horace Walpole], chapter II, in The Castle of Otranto, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Lownds […], →OCLC, page 74:
- The well meaning Prieſt ſuffered him to deceive himſelf, fully determined to traverſe his views, inſtead of ſeconding them.
- 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
- I cannot but […] admit the force of this reasoning, which I yet hope to traverse.
- To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
- 1675, Robert South, Of the odious Sin of Ingratitude (A Sermon preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, October 17, 1675)
- My purpose is to […] traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice—ingratitude.
- 1675, Robert South, Of the odious Sin of Ingratitude (A Sermon preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, October 17, 1675)
- (carpentry) To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood.
- to traverse a board
- (law) To deny formally.
- a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Epistle the Thirteenth. To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden, of Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 186:
- Without their coſt, you terminate the cauſe; / And ſave th' expence of long litigious laws: / Where ſuits are travers'd; and ſo little won, / That he who conquers, is but laſt undone: […]
- (intransitive, fencing) To use the motions of opposition or counteraction.
Derived terms
Translations
to travel across, often under difficult conditions
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Adverb
traverse (comparative more traverse, superlative most traverse)
Adjective
traverse (comparative more traverse, superlative most traverse)
- Lying across; being in a direction across something else.
- paths cut with traverse trenches
- 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC:
- Oak […] being strong in all positions, may be better trusted in cross and traverse work.
- a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC:
- the ridges of the fallow field lay trauerse
Derived terms
Anagrams
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