▪ I. traversing, vbl. n.
(ˈtrævəsɪŋ, trəˈvɜːsɪŋ)
[f. traverse v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb traverse, in various senses.
| 1589 Nashe Martins Months M. To Rdr., This our young masters Father..then was lept from the Bellfree, vp into the Chauncel of the Church..and vnder tooke the trauersing of greater matters. a 1642 Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iii. (1704) 344/1 They [cannon] are..better in Traversing and Mounting. 1678 Moxon Mech. Exerc. iv. 65 This way of Cross-Grain'd working, is, by Workmen called Traversing. 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 641 Let these two Examples suffice for Traversing both by Protraction, Calculation, and by the Traverse Table. 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 487 Amongst the marchings and traversings of the Northmen. 1883 Contemp. Rev. June 883 Forty years' laborious traversing of record offices and corporate archives. 1886 Badminton Libr., Shooting (1895) 177 The..system of ‘traversing’..cannot be too strongly deprecated. 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 705/2 (Surveying) Traversing is a combination of linear and angular measures in equal proportion. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 25 Nov. 4/3 The ‘traversing’ or drawing sideways of the new bridge so that it would occupy..the place where the up line had formerly stood. 1905 J. C. Wilson Traversing Geometr. Figures 1 On the continuous description or traversing of Geometrical Figures. |
b. attrib. and Comb.
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 407 The alternate traversing motion is produced on the same principle as that applied to Baker's horizontal mangle. 1841 Civil. Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. IV. 318/1 What is..termed the ‘taking-up’ or ‘traversing motion’ of the plank during..sawing. 1888 Rutley Rock-Forming Min. 18 Mechanical traversing arrangements..are rather an encumbrance than an advantage. |
▪ II. traversing, ppl. a.
(ˈtrævəsɪŋ, trəˈvɜːsɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That traverses; crossing, transverse.
| 1561 Eden Arte Nauig. iii. ix. 73 See also that the markes whiche you make in the yarde [= cross-staff], be trauersyng lines. 1771 Luckombe Hist. Print. 476 In distributing of Musical Notes,..care ought to be taken to save the edges of the traversing lines from battering. 1865 Gillespie Argt. Being & Attrib. God iii. ii. (1910) 93 Other lines, some of them..traversing lines, besides the main line of life. |
b. In specific collocations: see quots.
traversing jury, a traverse jury (see traverse n. 23).
| 1823 Rep. Sel. Comm. Sewers Metrop. 17 A traversing jury. 1828 Spearman Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 63 The guns are mounted on traversing platforms, and, in that case, fire over the epaulement. 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay xvii, The traversing beam of a steamboat. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Traversing-jack, a. A jack used for engines or carriages upon the rails. b. A lifting-apparatus, the standard of which has a movement on its bed, enabling it to be applied to different parts of an object or used for shifting objects horizontally without moving the bed. Ibid., Traversing-pulley, a pulley so arranged as to traverse upon a rope or rod. 1878 F. S. Williams Midl. Railw. 664 Sidings and traversing tables will be laid between all these various shops, and also through them, so that there will always be more than one way by which trollies or trains can get in and out. 1884 C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iii. 294/1 The traversing mandril should be made of the very finest steel. 1887 D. A. Low Machine Draw. (1892) 96 The lever..for turning the horizontal screw of a traversing screw jack. |