If [we love] transitory things, which soon decay, Age must be loveliest
at the latest day.
Donne.
O fleeting joys Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes.
Milton.
— Tran"sient*ly (#), adv. — Tran"sient*ness, n.
Tran"sient, n. That which remains but for a brief time. Glanvill.
{ Tran*sil"i*ence (?), Tran*sil"i*en*cy (?), } n. [L. transiliens, p.
pr. of transilire to leap across or over; trans across, over + salire
to leap.] A leap across or from one thing to another. [R.] "An
unadvised transiliency." Glanvill.
||Trans*i"re (?), n. [L. transire to pass through or across, to pass.]
||(End. Law) A customhouse clearance for a coasting vessel; a permit.
||
Trans"it (?), n. [L. transitus, from transire to go over: cf. F.
transit. See Transient.] 1. The act of passing; passage through or
over.
In France you are now . . . in the transit from one form of government
to another.
Burke.
2. The act or process of causing to pass; conveyance; as, the transit
of goods through a country.
3. A line or route of passage or conveyance; as, the Nicaragua transit.
E. G. Squier.
4. (Astron.) (a) The passage of a heavenly body over the meridian of a
place, or through the field of a telescope. (b) The passage of a
smaller body across the disk of a larger, as of Venus across the sun's
disk, or of a satellite or its shadow across the disk of its primary.
5. An instrument resembling a theodolite, used by surveyors and
engineers; — called also transit compass, and surveyor's transit.
The surveyor's transit differs from the theodolite in having the
horizontal axis attached directly to the telescope which is not mounted
in Y's and can be turned completely over about the axis.
Lower transit (Astron.), the passage of a heavenly body across that
part of the meridian which is below the polar axis. — Surveyor's
transit. See Transit, 5, above. — Transit circle (Astron.), a transit
instrument with a graduated circle attached, used for observing the
time of transit and the declination at one observation. See Circle, n.,
3. — Transit compass. See Transit, 5, above. — Transit duty, a duty
paid on goods that pass through a country. — Transit instrument.
(Astron.) (a) A telescope mounted at right angles to a horizontal axis,
on which it revolves with its line of collimation in the plane of the
meridian, — used in connection with a clock for observing the time of
transit of a heavenly body over the meridian of a place. (b) (Surv.) A
surveyor's transit. See Transit, 5, above. — Transit trade (Com.), the
business conected with the passage of goods through a country to their
destination. — Upper transit (Astron.), the passage of a heavenly body
across that part of the meridian which is above the polar axis.
Trans"it, v. t. (Astron.) To pass over the disk of (a heavenly body).
Tran*si"tion (?), n. [L. transitio: cf. F. transition. See Transient.]
1. Passage from one place or state to another; charge; as, the
transition of the weather from hot to cold.
There is no death, what seems so is transition.
Longfellow.
2. (Mus.) A direct or indirect passing from one key to another; a
modulation.