traverse

Etymology

From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).

noun

1. (climbing) A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent.
2. (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.
   At the entrance of the king, the first traverse was drawn, and the lower descent of the mountain discovered, which was the pendant of a hill to life, with divers boscages and grovets upon the steep or hanging grounds thereof. 1811, Ben Jonson, The Dramatic Works: Embellished with Portraits, volume 4, page 571
3. (obsolete) A screen or partition.
   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 […] 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Court
   At the entrance of the king, / The first traverse was drawn. 1613, Francis Beaumont, The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn
4. Something that thwarts or obstructs.
   He will succeed, as long as there are no unlucky traverses not under his control.
5. (architecture) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.
6. (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).
7. (nautical) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course.
8. (geometry) A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal.
9. (military) In trench warfare, a defensive trench built to prevent enfilade.
   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
10. (nautical) A traverse board.
    The whole care of the vessel rested, therefore, upon me, and I was obliged to direct her by my former experience, not being able to work a traverse. 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 7, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I

verb

1. (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.
   What seas you travers'd, and what fields you fought! / Your country's peace how oft, how dearly bought! 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
   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. November 2 2022, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, pages 56–57
2. (transitive, computing) To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly.
   to traverse all nodes in a network
3. To lay in a cross direction; to cross.
4. (weaponry) To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target.
   to traverse a cannon
5. (climbing) To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope).
6. (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.
7. To act against; to thwart or obstruct.
8. To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
   My purpose is to […] traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice—ingratitude. 1675, Robert South, Of the odious Sin of Ingratitude (A Sermon preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, October 17, 1675)
9. (carpentry) To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood.
   to traverse a board
10. (law) To deny formally.
11. (intransitive, fencing) To use the motions of opposition or counteraction.

adv

1. athwart; across; crosswise

adj

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