traverse
See also: traversé
English
Etymology
From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtɹævə(ɹ)s/, /tɹəˈvə(ɹ)s/
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.
- (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 […]
- F. Beaumont
- At the entrance of the king, / The first traverse was drawn.
- 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Court:
- 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.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Gwilt to this entry?)
- (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.
- 1994, Stephen R. Wise, Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863 (page 160)
Related terms
Verb
traverse (third-person singular simple present traverses, present participle traversing, simple past and past participle traversed)
- (transitive) To travel across, often under difficult conditions.
- He will have to traverse the mountain to get to the other side.
- Alexander Pope
- what seas you traversed, and what fields you fought
- (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.
- Dryden
- The parts should be often traversed, or crossed, by the flowing of the folds.
- Dryden
- (artillery) 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 cross by way of opposition; to thwart with obstacles; to obstruct.
- Sir Walter Scott
- I cannot but […] admit the force of this reasoning, which I yet hope to traverse.
- Sir Walter Scott
- To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
- South
- My purpose is to traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice — ingratitude.
- South
- (carpentry) To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood.
- to traverse a board
- (law) To deny formally.
- Dryden
- And save the expense of long litigious laws, / Where suits are traversed, and so little won / That he who conquers is but last undone.
- Dryden
Translations
to travel across, often under difficult conditions
|
Adjective
traverse (comparative more traverse, superlative most traverse)
- Lying across; being in a direction across something else.
- paths cut with traverse trenches
- Sir H. Wotton
- Oak […] being strong in all positions, may be better trusted in cross and traverse work.
- Hayward
- the ridges of the fallow field traverse
Derived terms
- traverse drill
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tʁa.vɛʁs/
Etymology 1
From Vulgar Latin traversa, feminine of traversus.
Etymology 2
Inflected forms.
Verb
traverse
Further reading
- “traverse” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Italian
Anagrams
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.