(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.
1811, Ben Jonson,The Dramatic Works: Embellished with Portraits, volume 4, page571:
At the entrance of the king, the firsttraverse 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.
Than sholde ye see there pressynge in a pace / Of one and other that wolde this lady see, / Whiche sat behynde atraves of sylke fyne, / Of golde of tessew the fynest that myghte be[…]
At the entrance of the king, / The firsttraverse was drawn.
Something that thwarts or obstructs.
He will succeed, as long as there are no unluckytraverses not under his control.
(architecture) Agallery orloft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.[1]
(law) Aformaldenial of some matter of fact alleged by the opposite party in any stage of thepleadings. The technical words introducing a traverse areabsque hoc ("without this", i.e. without what follows).
(nautical) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course.
He will have totraverse the mountain to get to the other side.
1737,Alexander Pope,First Epistle on the Second Book of Horace, lines396–397; republished inThe Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company,1902,page197:
What seas youtravers'd, and what fields you fought! / Your country's peace how oft, how dearly bought!
1951 September, B. D. J. Walsh, “The Sudbury and Haverhill Line, Eastern Region”, inRailway Magazine, page619:
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, aftertraversing a scissors crossover, become the down and up roads through the station, which possesses an extensive goods yard.
2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, inRAIL, number969, pages56–57:
The journey is worth an article in itself, but all I can give is a flavour of a railway whichtraverses a bleak but dramatic coastline that's regularly battered by the elements - especially around Parton, where the line is constantly threatened by the sea.
a.1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Epistle the Thirteenth. To My Honoured Kinsman, John Dryden, of Chesterton, in the County of Huntingdon, Esq”, inThe Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden,[…], volume II, London:[…]J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson,[…], published1760,→OCLC,page186:
Without their coſt, you terminate the cauſe; / And ſave th' expence of long litigious laws: / Where ſuits aretravers'd; and ſo little won, / That he who conquers, is but laſt undone:[…]
Lying across; being in a direction across something else.
paths cut withtraverse trenches
1624,Henry Wotton,The Elements of Architecture,[…], London:[…] Iohn Bill,→OCLC:
Oak[…] being strong in all positions, may be better trusted in cross andtraverse work.
a.1628 (date written),John Hayward,The Life, and Raigne of KingEdward the Sixt, London:[…][Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge,[…], published1630,→OCLC:
