Lexic.us

Definition of Traverse

1. Verb. Travel across or pass over. "These men traverse the river"; "The caravan covered almost 100 miles each day"

2. Noun. A horizontal beam that extends across something.

3. Verb. To cover or extend over an area or time period. "The novel spans three centuries"

4. Noun. A horizontal crosspiece across a window or separating a door from a window over it.

5. Verb. Deny formally (an allegation of fact by the opposing party) in a legal suit.

6. Noun. Taking a zigzag path on skis.

7. Noun. Travel across.

Definition of Traverse

1. a. Lying across; being in a direction across something else; as, paths cut with traverse trenches.

2. adv. Athwart; across; crosswise.

3. n. Anything that traverses, or crosses.

4. v. t. To lay in a cross direction; to cross.

5. v. i. To use the posture or motions of opposition or counteraction, as in fencing.

Definition of Traverse

1. Noun. (context: climbing) A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent. ¹

2. Noun. (context: military) In fortification, a mass of earth or other material employed to protect troops against enfilade. It is constructed at right angles to the parapet. ¹

3. Noun. (context: 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. ¹

4. Verb. (transitive) To travel across, often under difficult conditions. ¹

5. Verb. (transitive computing) To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly; as, to traverse all nodes in a network. ¹

6. Verb. (context: artillery) To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target. ¹

7. Verb. (context: climbing) To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Traverse

1. to pass across or through [v -VERSED, -VERSING, -VERSES]

Medical Definition of Traverse

1. 1. To lay in a cross direction; to cross. "The parts should be often traversed, or crossed, by the flowing of the folds." (Dryden) 2. To cross by way of opposition; to thwart with obstacles; to obstruct; to bring to naught. "I can not but . . . Admit the force of this reasoning, which I yet hope to traverse." (Sir W. Scott) 3. To wander over; to cross in traveling; as, to traverse the habitable globe. "What seas you traversed, and what fields you fought." (Pope) 4. To pass over and view; to survey carefully. "My purpose is to traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice ingratitude." (South) 5. To turn to the one side or the other, in order to point in any direction; as, to traverse a cannon. 6. To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood; as, to traverse a board. 7. To deny formally, as what the opposite party has alleged. When the plaintiff or defendant advances new matter, he avers it to be true, and traverses what the other party has affirmed. To traverse an indictment or an office is to deny it. "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) To traverse a yard, to brace it fore and aft. Origin: Cf. F. Traverser. See Traverse. 1. Anything that traverses, or crosses. Specifically: 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. A barrier, sliding door, movable screen, curtain, or the like. "Men drinken and the travers draw anon." (Chaucer) "And the entrance of the king, The first traverse was drawn." (F. Beaumont) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building. A work thrown up to intercept an enfilade, or reverse fire, along exposed passage, or line of work. 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; that is, without this which follows. The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course. A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal. A line surveyed across a plot of ground. The turning of a gun so as to make it point in any desired direction. 2. A turning; a trick; a subterfuge. To work, or solve, a traverse A platform with one or more tracks, and arranged to move laterally on wheels, for shifting cars, etc, from one line of track to another. Origin: F. Traverse. See Traverse. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Traverse

travellour travells travelog travelogs travelogue traveloguelike travelogues travelour travels traveltime

traveltimes travers traversable traversal traversals traverse (current term) traversed traverser traversers traverses

traversing traverso traversos travertine travertines travertinous traves travestied travesties travesty

Literary usage of Traverse

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Supreme Court Reporter by Robert Desty, United States Supreme Court, West Publishing Company (1922)
"... (b) the construction of a sluice dam at any point in Lake traverse for the purpose of increasing its capacity as a detaining basin; (c) artificial ..."

2. Field Geology by Frederic Henry Lahee (1917)
"traverse Defined.—In studying an area a geologist proceeds along the route which he ... His course, known as a traverse, is a line, or a system of lines, ..."

3. South Eastern Reporter by West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, West Publishing Company, South Carolina Supreme Court (1913)
"It is the better practice to postpone the trial of the issue formed by a traverse to a garnishee's answer until after judgment has been obtained against the ..."

4. Bulletin by Ohio State Geologist, Ohio Division of Geological Survey (1909)
"DISCUSSION OF THE traverse FAUNA. A study of the traverse fauna shows a relatively greater importance of the Corals than occurred in the Hamilton of the ..."

5. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery: During by Great Britain Court of Chancery, Edward Thurlow Thurlow, Alexander Wedderburn Rosslyn, Jonathan Cogswell Perkins (1844)
"You merely state the Inquisition, take the common traverse upon it, ... A traverse to an inquisition in lunacy, upon the application of the party himself, ..."

6. A Treatise on the Principles of Pleading in Civil Actions: Comprising a by Henry John Stephen, Franklin Fiske Heard (1867)
"(c)(13) On the other hand, however, a party may, in general, traverse a material allegation ... See other instances of a traverse being too large, Basan v. ..."

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