Also 7 traueser. [f. TRAVERSE v. + -ER1.] One who or that which traverses.
1. A person or thing that crosses or passes over.
1613. M. Ridley, Magn. Bodies, 1. The two trauesers about the Sunne, called Venus and Mercury.
1830. Howitt, Seasons (1837), 3. A dismal time for the traversers of wide and open heaths.
† 2. = TRAVERSE sb. 16. Obs. rare.
1645. Slingsby, Diary (1836), 159. Ye town … was made a kind of Garison wth some traversers and light works built about it.
3. Law. One who traverses a plea.
1812. Examiner, 21 Sept., 607/1. The traverser was prevented from hanging himself.
1886. Dowden, Shelley (1887), I. vi. 240. The charge of Chief Justice Downes made clear the case against the traverser.
4. On a railway: A platform, moving laterally on wheels, by which trucks or carriages may be shifted from one set of rails to another parallel to it.
1851. T. Dunn, in Pract. Mechanic’s Jrnl., III. 258. I was the first person who invented a traverser.
1878. F. S. Williams, Midl. Railw., 643. The truck is now clear, and … will be run on to the ‘traverser,’ and … drawn sideways on to the next line of rails.
