Traverse sailing

Traverse \Trav"erse\, n. [F. traverse. See {Traverse}, a.]
   1. Anything that traverses, or crosses. Specifically: 
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      (a) Something that thwarts, crosses, or obstructs; a cross
          accident; as, he would have succeeded, had it not been
          for unlucky traverses not under his control.
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      (b) A barrier, sliding door, movable screen, curtain, or
          the like.
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                Men drinken and the travers draw anon.
                                                  --Chaucer.
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                And the entrance of the king,
                The first traverse was drawn.     --F. Beaumont.
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      (c) (Arch.) A gallery or loft of communication from side
          to side of a church or other large building. --Gwilt.
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      (d) (Fort.) A work thrown up to intercept an enfilade, or
          reverse fire, along exposed passage, or line of work.
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      (e) (Law) A formal denial of some matter of fact alleged
          by the opposite party in any stage of the pleadings.
          The technical words introducing a traverse are absque
          hoc, without this; that is, without this which
          follows.
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      (f) (Naut.) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in
          passing from one place to another; a compound course.
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      (g) (Geom.) A line lying across a figure or other lines; a
          transversal.
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      (h) (Surv.) A line surveyed across a plot of ground.
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      (i) (Gun.) The turning of a gun so as to make it point in
          any desired direction.
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   2. A turning; a trick; a subterfuge. [Obs.]
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   {To work a traverse} or {To solve a traverse} (Naut.), to
      reduce a series of courses or distances to an equivalent
      single one; to calculate the resultant of a traverse.

   {Traverse board} (Naut.), a small board hung in the steerage,
      having the points of the compass marked on it, and for
      each point as many holes as there are half hours in a
      watch. It is used for recording the courses made by the
      ship in each half hour, by putting a peg in the
      corresponding hole.

   {Traverse jury} (Law), a jury that tries cases; a petit jury.
      

   {Traverse sailing} (Naut.), a sailing by compound courses;
      the method or process of finding the resulting course and
      distance from a series of different shorter courses and
      distances actually passed over by a ship.

   {Traverse table}.
      (a) (Naut. & Surv.) A table by means of which the
          difference of latitude and departure corresponding to
          any given course and distance may be found by
          inspection. It contains the lengths of the two sides
          of a right-angled triangle, usually for every quarter
          of a degree of angle, and for lengths of the
          hypothenuse, from 1 to 100.
      (b) (Railroad) A platform with one or more tracks, and
          arranged to move laterally on wheels, for shifting
          cars, etc., from one line of track to another.
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