traverse

TRAV'ERSE, adv. Athwart; crosswise.

The ridges of the field lay traverse.

TRAV'ERSE, prep. [supra.] Through crosswise.

He traverse

The whole battalion views their order due. [Little used.]

TRAV'ERSE, a. [L. versus; transversus.] Lying across; being in a direction across something else; as paths cut with traverse trenches.

Oak--may be trusted in traverse work for summers.

TRAV'ERSE, n. [supra.] Any thing laid or built across.

There is a traverse placed in the loft where she sitteth.

1. Something that thwarts, crosses or obstructs; a cross accident. He is satisfied he should have succeeded, had it not been for unlucky traverses not in his power.

2. In fortification, a trench with a little parapet for protecting men on the flank; also, a wall raised across a work.

3. In navigation, traverse-sailing is the mode of computing the place of a ship by reducing several short courses made by sudden shifts or turns, to one longer course.

4. In law, a denial of what the opposite party has advanced in any state of the pleadings. When the traverse or denial comes from the defendant, the issue is tendered in this manner, "and of this he puts himself on the country." When the traverse lies on the plaintiff, he prays "this may be inquired of by the country."

The technical words introducing a traverse are absque hoc, without this; that is, without this which follows.

5. A turning; a trick.

TRAV'ERSE, v.t. To cross; to lay in a cross direction.

The parts should be often traversed or crossed by the flowing of the folds.

1. To cross by way of opposition; to thwart; to obstruct.

Frog thought to traverse this new project.

2. To wander over; to cross in traveling; as, to traverse the habitable globe.

What seas you travers'd, and what fields you fought.

3. To pass over and view; to survey carefully.

My purpose is to traverse the nature, principles and properties of this detestable vice, ingratitude.

4. To turn and point in any direction; as, to traverse a cannon.

5. To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood; as, to traverse a board.

6. In law pleadings, to deny 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. So to traverse an indictment or an office, is to deny it.

To traverse a yard, in sailing, is to brace it aft.

TRAV'ERSE, v.i. In fencing, to use the posture or motions of opposition or counteraction.

To see thee fight, to see thee traverse--

1. To turn, as on a pivot; to move round; to swivel. The needle of a compass traverses; if it does not traverse well, it is an unsafe guide.

2. In the manege, to cut the tread crosswise, as a horse that throws his croup to one side and his head to the other.