Men drinken and the travers draw anon.
--Chaucer.
And the entrance of the king, The first traverse
was drawn. --F. Beaumont.
(c) (Arch.) A gallery or loft of communication from side
to side of a church or other large building. --Gwilt.
(d) (Fort.) A work thrown up to intercept an enfilade, or
reverse fire, along exposed passage, or line of work.
(e) (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; that is, without this which
follows.
(f) (Naut.) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in
passing from one place to another; a compound course.
(g) (Geom.) A line lying across a figure or other lines; a
transversal.
(h) (Surv.) A line surveyed across a plot of ground.
(i) (Gun.) The turning of a gun so as to make it point in
any desired direction.
2. A turning; a trick; a subterfuge. [Obs.]
{To work, or solve}, {a traverse} (Naut.), to reduce a series
of courses or distances to an equivalent single one; to
calculate the resultant of a traverse.
{Traverse board} (Naut.), a small board hung in the steerage,
having the points of the compass marked on it, and for
each point as many holes as there are half hours in a
watch. It is used for recording the courses made by the
ship in each half hour, by putting a peg in the
corresponding hole.
{Traverse jury} (Law), a jury that tries cases; a petit jury.
{Traverse sailing} (Naut.), a sailing by compound courses;
the method or process of finding the resulting course and
distance from a series of different shorter courses and
distances actually passed over by a ship.
{Traverse table}.
(a) (Naut. & Surv.) A table by means of which the
difference of latitude and departure corresponding to
any given course and distance may be found by
inspection. It contains the lengths of the two sides
of a right-angled triangle, usually for every quarter
of a degree of angle, and for lengths of the
hypothenuse, from 1 to 100.
(b) (Railroad) 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.
Oak . . . being strong in all positions, may be better
trusted in cross and traverse work. --Sir H.
Wotton.
The ridges of the fallow field traverse. --Hayward.
{Traverse drill} (Mach.), a machine tool for drilling slots,
in which the work or tool has a lateral motion back and
forth; also, a drilling machine in which the spindle
holder can be adjusted laterally.
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. (Gun.) To turn to the one side or the other, in order to
point in any direction; as, to traverse a cannon.
6. (Carp.) To plane in a direction across the grain of the
wood; as, to traverse a board.
7. (Law) 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} (Naut.), to brace it fore and aft.
To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see thee
traverse. --Shak.
2. To turn, as on a pivot; to move round; to swivel; as, the
needle of a compass traverses; if it does not traverse
well, it is an unsafe guide.
3. To tread or move crosswise, as a horse that throws his
croup to one side and his head to the other.