traverse.
A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent.
Meaning & usage
A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent.
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.
A screen or partition.
Something that thwarts or obstructs.
He will succeed, as long as there are no unlucky traverses not under his control.
A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.
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).
The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course.
A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal.
In trench warfare, a defensive trench built to prevent enfilade.
A traverse board.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
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.
To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly.
to traverse all nodes in a network
To lay in a cross direction; to cross.
To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target.
to traverse a cannon
To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope).
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.
To act against; to thwart or obstruct.
To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood.
to traverse a board
To deny formally.
To use the motions of opposition or counteraction.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
athwart; across; crosswise
Where this word comes from
From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
Lying across; being in a direction across something else.
paths cut with traverse trenches
Where this word comes from
From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.