Library / English Dictionary

TRAVERSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Travel across

Synonyms:

traversal; traverse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("traverse" is a kind of...):

travel; traveling; travelling (the act of going from one place to another)

Derivation:

traverse (travel across or pass over)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Taking a zigzag path on skis

Synonyms:

traversal; traverse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("traverse" is a kind of...):

crossing (traveling across)

Holonyms ("traverse" is a part of...):

skiing (a sport in which participants must travel on skis)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A horizontal crosspiece across a window or separating a door from a window over it

Synonyms:

transom; traverse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("traverse" is a kind of...):

crosspiece (a transverse brace)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A horizontal beam that extends across something

Synonyms:

crossbeam; crosspiece; trave; traverse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("traverse" is a kind of...):

beam (long thick piece of wood or metal or concrete, etc., used in construction)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deny formally (an allegation of fact by the opposing party) in a legal suit

Synonyms:

deny; traverse

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Domain category:

law; practice of law (the learned profession that is mastered by graduate study in a law school and that is responsible for the judicial system)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Travel across or pass over

Example:

The caravan covered almost 100 miles each day

Synonyms:

cover; cross; cut across; cut through; get across; get over; pass over; track; traverse

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "traverse" is one way to...):

pass (go across or through)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "traverse"):

tramp (cross on foot)

stride (cover or traverse by taking long steps)

walk (traverse or cover by walking)

crisscross (cross in a pattern, often random)

ford (cross a river where it's shallow)

bridge (cross over on a bridge)

jaywalk (cross the road at a red light)

drive; take (proceed along in a vehicle)

course (move swiftly through or over)

hop (traverse as if by a short airplane trip)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

traversal; traverse (travel across)

traverser (someone who moves or passes across)

Sense 3

Meaning:

To cover or extend over an area or time period

Example:

The novel spans three centuries

Synonyms:

cross; span; sweep; traverse

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "traverse" is one way to...):

continue; cover; extend (span an interval of distance, space or time)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Each odontoblast has a cytoplasmic extension, an odontoblastic process that traverses the thickness of the dentin and helps to maintain the dentin.

(Odontoblast, NCI Thesaurus)

The process in which radiated energy is partially or completely retained in the matter which it traverses.

(Energy Absorption, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit of length that would be traversed in a period of one year by an object moving at the speed of light in a vacuum (2.99792458E8 meters per second).

(Light-Year, NCI Thesaurus)

It was to the rear, somewhere in the snow expanse they had just traversed.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Holmes paused irresolute, and then he glanced back at the road which he had just traversed.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The fifth layer of the cerebral cortex, composed of the largest pyramidal cells (Martinotti's cells and Betz's cells), and traversed by a layer of horizontally arranged fibers.

(Ganglionic Layer of the Cerebral Cortex, NCI Thesaurus)

Some scientists predict that El Niño might concentrate in the Pacific without traversing its lengths, while others suggest its pattern may become less predictable.

(El Niño linked to widespread crop failures, SciDev.Net)

The trains which traverse the lines of rail beside which the body was found are those which run from west to east, some being purely Metropolitan, and some from Willesden and outlying junctions.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

University of Wyoming earth scientist Davin Bagdonas traversed the Granite, Shirley and Laramie Mountains to examine the batholith.

(Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone may have been more active in the past, NSF)

One of approximately 20-30 lymph nodes in chain formation that traverse the concavity of the underarm to the clavicle.

(Axillary lymph node, NCI Thesaurus)