Meanings
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1
adj
Situated or lying across; side to side, relative to some defined "forward" direction; perpendicular or slanted relative to the "forward" direction; identified with movement across areas.
The units have transverse seats, two and three astride the passageway with single or double longitudinal seats alongside the two entrance vestibules in each car.
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2
verb
To overturn.
And so long shall her censures, when justly passed, have their effect: how then can they be altered or transversed, suspended or superseded, by a temporal government, that must vanish and come to nothing?
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3
verb
To alter or transform.
In love, it is said, all stratagems are fair, and many little ladies transverse the axiom by applying it to discover the secrets of their friends.
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4
verb
To change from prose into verse, or from verse into prose.
Bayes: Why, thus, Sir; nothing so easy when understood; I take a book in my hand, either at home or elsewhere, for that's all one, if there be any wit in't, as there is no book but has some, I transverse it; that is, if it be prose, put it into verse, (but that takes up some time) and if it be verse, put it into prose.
Thesaurus
Etymology
Late Middle English, from Latin trānsversus (“turned across; going or lying across or crosswise”). Doublet of transversal.