Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word traverse. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word traverse, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say traverse in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word traverse you have here. The definition of the word traverse will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oftraverse, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
(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.
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
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.
(law) A formaldenial 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.
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.
1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal , chapter II, in The Castle of Otranto,, London: Tho Lownds, →OCLC, page 74:
The well meaning Prieſt ſuffered him to deceive himſelf, fully determined to traverſe his views, inſtead of ſeconding them.
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 and R 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: