Forms: see TRANCE sb.1 [In sense 1 a. OF. transir to pass away, to die: see TRANCE sb.1; in sense 2 f. TRANCE sb.1]
† 1. intr. a. To ‘pass away,’ to die. b. To swoon, faint. c. To be in extreme dread, doubt, or suspense. (In some early quotations these senses are difficult to distinguish.) Obs.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 8158. Þai salle seme, whether þai lyg or stand, Als men in transyng, ay deghand.
a. 1350. Assumpt. Mary, 325, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 116. Þan scho transed þare als fast, And þe saul fra þe body past.
14[?]. Tundale’s Vis., 41. As he yn a transynge lay, Hys sowle was in a dredefull way.
1530. Palsgr., 761/2. I trawnce, I fall in a traunce or swounyng, je me transis.… I feare me … he wyll dye, for he traunseth often, je mer doute,… quil mourra, car il se transit souuent.
c. 1600. Burel, Pilgr., in Watson, Coll., II. 48. Perplexit and vexit Betwixt houp and dispair, Quhyls transing, quhyls pansing, How till eschew the snair.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., I. 5. I trancing flye, I fall, I houering scale.
2. trans. To throw into a trance or a similar state; † to stupely; to entrance, enrapture. Chiefly poet.
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., Defiance to Envie, 33. And trance herself in that sweete extasey.
a. 1619. Fletcher, etc., Q. Corinth, II. iii. Why, where am I? How am I traunc’d and moap’d? i’ th street—Heaven bless me.
1800. Moore, Anacreon, xvii. Mingle in his jetty glances Power that awes, and love that trances.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, V. xvii. I trod as one tranced in some rapturous vision.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, II. iv. ii. When I was wont to meet her in the silent woody places … We stood tranced in long embraces.
fig. 1830. Tennyson, Mariana, ii. When thickest dark did trance the sky.
1865. J. Thomson, Sunday up the River, IV. iii. What Sabbath peace doth trance the air!
1876. D. Stevenson, in Gd. Words, 687. The world was tranced into a slumberous hush.
Hence Trancing vbl. sb. and ppl. a., entrancing.
1340, 14[?]. [see sense 1].
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, V. 512. That caressing colour and trancing tone Whereby you’re swept away and melted in The sensual element.
1867. F. W. H. Myers, St. Paul, 52. God with sweet strength, with terror and with trancing Spake in the purple mystery of dawn.
1873. E. Brennan, Witch of Nemi, etc., 146. Let darkness make complete its trancing joy.
