[ad. L. trājectiōnem a crossing over, transportation, n. of action f. trājicĕre to throw or convey across: see TRAJECT.]
1. The action of trajecting or fact of being trajected; a throwing or carrying across; passage through. † a. Passage across a river, etc. Obs.
1637. Heywood, Dial., xv. Wks. 1874, VI. 232. My due for thy trajection downe here lay.
1657–83. Evelyn, Hist. Relig. (1850), I. 144. The spectre at the Rubicon, Caesar hesitating that trajection.
1690. T. Burnet, Th. Earth, II. 88. No long passage or trajection will be requir’d from shore to shore.
1711. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 133. The King observeing the Prince to attempt a trajection [of the Boyne] commanded his army to … face to the enemy.
† b. The passing (of anything) through a sieve or the like. Obs. rare.
1657. Physical Dict., Trajection,… as cheese is strained from the whey.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 85. By common trajection … or by a more peculiar colation.
c. Passage or transmission through any medium, or through space.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., 254. They might in all parts behold the trajections and motions of the starres.
1661. Boyle, Cert. Physiol. Ess. (1669), 166. Such Comets as have by a Trajection through the Ether, for a long time wander’d through the Celestial or Interstellar part of the Universe.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, II. i. 147. The Trajections and shooting of the Stars.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., VI. v. 365. The Trajection and Distribution of the Blood depends wholly on the Systole of the Heart.
1860. [see TRAJECTILE sb.].
d. Transmission (of light, heat, or other form of energy).
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter i. 19. Those upon earth that are said to have half a year night; yet are not without some trajection of light.
1661. Boyle, Spring of Air, II. i. (1682), 21. Supposing light not to be made by a trajection of Atoms through Diaphanous bodies.
1704. Norris, Ideal World, II. iii. 189. Vision may be considered … as it signifies the passing or trajection of the rays of light, with all their refractions thro’ the several coats and humours of the eye.
e. fig.
1888. A. S. Wilson, Lyric Hopeless Love, cxxxvii. Not happiness but purpose drives The dim trajection of our lives.
1905. Athenæum, 11 Feb., 174/1. His trajection of the ignorance of primitive man on this unknown immensity is very impressive.
† 2. A perception transmitted to the mind; an impression, a mental image. Obs.
1594. Zepheria, ii. When I empris’d … The siluer lustre of thy brow t’ unmask, Though hath my Muse hyperboliz’d trajections: Yet stands it aye deficient to such task.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VII. x. 357. The trajections of such an object [must] more sharpely pierce the martyr’d soul of John, then afterward did the nayls the crucifyed body of Peter.
3. Transposition; metathesis.
1612. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., 191. Ægypt is by them named … not without some trajection of letters, [Hebrew] for [Hebrew].
1649. Roberts, Clavis Bibl., 289. Here is a more obscure Trajection or Transposition of the phrases in this verse.
1795. Macknight, Epist. (1820), III. 95. The words are placed in the end of the verse by a trajection usual in Paul’s writings.
1875. Jowett, Plato, I. 152. You must suppose him to make a trajection of the word … ‘truly.’
1895. A. E. Housman, in Classical Rev., Oct., 354/1. As a Corpus Poetarum is a work of reference…, there is some disadvantage in admitting even the most certain trajections.
