traverse
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹəˈvɝs/
ipa: /tɹəˈvɜːs/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s
ipa: /ˈtɹævɚs/
ipa: /ˈtɹævəs/
Forms: form: traverses
form: traversing
form: traversed
form: traversed
Etymology: From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
Senses: examples: text: He will have to traverse the mountain to get to the other side.
text: What seas you travers'd, and what fields you fought! / Your country's peace how oft, how dearly bought!
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1951 September, B. D. J. Walsh, “The Sudbury and Haverhill Line, Eastern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 619:
text: 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.
ref: 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, pages 56–57:
glosses: To travel across, to go through, to pass through, particularly under difficult conditions.
examples: text: to traverse all nodes in a network
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly.
examples: text: The parts should be often traversed, or crossed, by the flowing of the folds.
ref: 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:
glosses: To lay in a cross direction; to cross.
examples: text: to traverse a cannon
topics: engineering
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target.
topics: climbing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope).
examples: text: the road traversed the face of the ridge as the right-of-way climbed the mountain
text: The last run, weary, I traversed the descents in no hurry to reach the lodge.
topics: engineering
hobbies
lifestyle
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
skiing
sports
glosses: To (make a cutting, an incline) across the gradients of a sloped face at safe rate.
examples: text: The well meaning Prieſt ſuffered him to deceive himſelf, fully determined to traverſe his views, inſtead of ſeconding them.
ref: 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:
text: I cannot but […] admit the force of this reasoning, which I yet hope to traverse.
ref: 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:
glosses: To act against; to thwart or obstruct.
examples: text: My purpose is to […] traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice—ingratitude.
ref: 1675, Robert South, Of the odious Sin of Ingratitude (A Sermon preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, October 17, 1675)
glosses: To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
examples: text: to traverse a board
topics: business
carpentry
construction
manufacturing
glosses: To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood.
examples: text: 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: […]
ref: 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:
topics: law
glosses: To deny formally.
topics: fencing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: To use the motions of opposition or counteraction.
Derived terms: traversing platform