My purpose is to traverse the nature, principles, and properties of
this detestable vice — ingratitude.
South.
5. (Gun.) To turn to the one side or the other, in order to point in
any direction; as, to traverse a cannon.
6. (Carp.) To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood; as, to
traverse a board.
7. (Law) To deny formally, as what the opposite party has alleged. When
the plaintiff or defendant advances new matter, he avers it to be true,
and traverses what the other party has affirmed. To traverse an
indictment or an office is to deny it.
And save the expense of long litigious laws, Where suits are traversed,
and so little won That he who conquers is but last undone.
Dryden.
To traverse a yard (Naut.), to brace it fore and aft.
Trav"erse (?), v. i. 1. To use the posture or motions of opposition or
counteraction, as in fencing.
To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see thee traverse.
Shak.
2. To turn, as on a pivot; to move round; to swivel; as, the needle of
a compass traverses; if it does not traverse well, it is an unsafe
guide.
3. To tread or move crosswise, as a horse that throws his croup to one
side and his head to the other.
Trav"ers*er (?), n. 1. One who, or that which, traverses, or moves, as
an index on a scale, and the like.