a. and sb. [ad. med.L. transversāl-is (a. 1255 Albertus Magnus, Animal., 13. 2. 1): see TRANSVERSE and -AL. Cf. F. transversal (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]

1

  A.  adj. 1. Lying or passing across; = TRANSVERSE a. 1.

2

c. 1440.  trans. Pallad. on Husb., VI. 179. A double cours of boording … Oon transuersal, another cours directe.

3

1527.  R. Thorne, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 253. One of the transuersall lines.

4

1542.  R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., E iv. Openynge with two transuersall muscles.

5

1644.  Digby, Nat. Bodies, xxvi. § 5. 236. The hart hath in the ventricles of it, three sortes of fibers:… the third, are transuersall or thwart ones.

6

1755.  Phil. Trans., XLIX. 119. Flames, rays, and fiery corruscations, direct and transversal.

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1831.  Faraday, Exp. Res., xlvi. 358. The direct vibration of the luminous body may communicate transversal vibration … to the molecules of the ether.

8

1908.  Contemp. Rev., March, 369. A scheme for the construction of a transversal line which would link Odessa and Varna.

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  † 2.  Genealogy. Collateral: = TRANSVERSE a. 2.

10

[a. 1308.  Duns Scotus, Sent., 4. 40. 6. Transversalis.]

11

1594.  Parsons, Confer. Success., II. viii. 184. He was of the right discendant lyne of K. John, and the Cardinal was but of the collateral or transuersal lyne.

12

1907.  [? implied in TRANSVERSALLY].

13

  3.  Conch., = TRANSVERSE a. 1 c. (So in F.)

14

1835–6.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 710/2. All [shells] that are of greater breadth than length are named transversal.

15

  B.  sb. † 1. Something transversal or lying athwart, a transverse line; fig. a deviation, digression. Obs. rare.

16

1597.  Lowe, Chirurg. (1634), 256. Three kinds of fibres which are Rights, Obliques, and Transversals.

17

1620.  Shelton, Quix. (1746), III. xxvi. 183. On with your Story in a direct Line, and fall not into your Crooks and your Transversals.

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  2.  Geom. A line intersecting two or more lines, or a system of lines.

19

1881.  Casey, Sequel to Euclid, 68. If two parallel lines be intersected by three concurrent transversals, the segments intercepted by the transversals on the parallels are proportional.

20

1885.  Eagles, Constr. Geom. Plane Curves, 15. Every transversal of a harmonic pencil is divided harmonically in the points in which it intersects the lines of the pencil.

21

1902.  Townsend, trans. Hilbert’s Foundat. Geometry, 63. A segment [of a line] joining a vertex of a triangle with a point of the opposite side is called a transversal. A transversal divides the given triangle into two others having the same altitude and having bases which lie in the same straight line.

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  b.  Optics. The line in which the plane of polarization of a beam of light intersects the wave-front; the transverse plane.

23

1909.  in Cent. Dict. Suppl.

24

  3.  Roulette. A bet placed at the end of any three numbers taking them horizontally. Cf. TRANSVERSE B. 1 h. Also in Fr. form transversale.

25

  Transversale six, a bet placed on the line, taking in the three numbers above and the three below.

26

1895.  G. Meredith, Amazing Marriage, ix. He stated that the number of 17 had won before. Abrane tried the transversal enclosing this favoured number.

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