traverse
UK /tɹəˈvɜːs/ · US /tɹəˈvɝs/ noun, verb, adverb, adjective, proper noun
Forms traverses traversing traversed
- noun (climbing) A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent.
- noun (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.
- noun (obsolete) A screen or partition.
- noun Something that thwarts or obstructs. “He will succeed, as long as there are no unlucky traverses not under his control.”
- noun (architecture) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.
- noun (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).
- noun (nautical) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course.
- noun (geometry) A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal.
- verb (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.”
- verb (transitive, computing) To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly. “to traverse all nodes in a network”
- verb To lay in a cross direction; to cross.
- verb (weaponry) To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target. “to traverse a cannon”
- verb (climbing) To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope).
- verb (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”
- verb To act against; to thwart or obstruct.
- verb To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
- adverb athwart; across; crosswise
- adjective Lying across; being in a direction across something else. “paths cut with traverse trenches”
- proper noun A surname from French.
Synonyms
trave crossbeam crosspiece transom traversal track cover cross pass over get over get across cut through cut across span sweep deny
Etymology
From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
Borrowed from French Traverse.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Lying across; being in a direction across something else; as, paths cut with traverse trenches.
- adverb Athwart; across; crosswise.
- noun Anything that traverses, or crosses. Specifically: -- (a) Something that thwarts, crosses, or obstructs; a cross accident; as, he would have succeeded, had it not been for unlucky traverses not under his control.
- noun A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building. Gwilt.
Etymology [OF. travers, L. transversus, p. p. of transvertere to turn or direct across. See Transverse, and cf. Travers.]
Etymology [F. traverse. See Traverse, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “traverse”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details