[f. TRAVERSE v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb TRAVERSE, in various senses.
1589. Nashe, Martins Months M., To Rdr. This our young masters Father … then was lept from the Bellfree, vp into the Chauncel of the Church … and vnder tooke the trauersing of greater matters.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, III. (1704), 344/1. They [cannon] are … better in Traversing and Mounting.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., iv. 65. This way of Cross-Grain’d working, is, by Workmen called Traversing.
1690. Leybourn, Curs. Math., 641. Let these two Examples suffice for Traversing both by Protraction, Calculation, and by the Traverse Table.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 487. Amongst the marchings and traversings of the Northmen.
1883. Contemp. Rev., June, 883. Forly years’ laborious traversing of record offices and corporate archives.
1886. Badminton Libr., Shooting (1895), 177. The … system of ‘traversing’ … cannot be too strongly deprecated.
1887. Encycl. Brit., XXII. 705/2 (Surveying). Traversing is a combination of linear and angular measures in equal proportion.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 25 Nov., 4/3. The ‘traversing’ or drawing sideways of the new bridge so that it would occupy … the place where the up line had formerly stood.
1905. J. C. Wilson, Traversing Geometr. Figures, 1. On the continuous description or traversing of Geometrical Figures.
b. attrib. and Comb.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 407. The alternate traversing motion is produced on the same principle as that applied to Baker’s horizontal mangle.
1841. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., IV. 318/1. What is … termed the ‘taking-up’ or ‘traversing motion’ of the plank during … sawing.
1888. Rutley, Rock-Forming Min., 18. Mechanical traversing arrangements … are rather an encumbrance than an advantage.
