Transit
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
transit
n 1: a surveying instrument for measuring horizontal and
vertical angles, consisting of a small telescope mounted on
a tripod [syn: {theodolite}, {transit}]
2: a facility consisting of the means and equipment necessary
for the movement of passengers or goods [syn: {transportation
system}, {transportation}, {transit}]
3: a journey usually by ship; "the outward passage took 10 days"
[syn: {passage}, {transit}]
v 1: make a passage or journey from one place to another; "The
tourists moved through the town and bought up all the
souvenirs;" "Some travelers pass through the desert" [syn:
{transit}, {pass through}, {move through}, {pass across},
{pass over}]
2: pass across (a sign or house of the zodiac) or pass across
(the disk of a celestial body or the meridian of a place);
"The comet will transit on September 11"
3: revolve (the telescope of a surveying transit) about its
horizontal transverse axis in order to reverse its direction
4: cause or enable to pass through; "The canal will transit
hundreds of ships every day"
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Transit \Trans"it\, n. [L. transitus, from transire to go over:
cf. F. transit. See {Transient}.]
1. The act of passing; passage through or over.
[1913 Webster]
In France you are now . . . in the transit from one
form of government to another. --Burke.
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2. The act or process of causing to pass; conveyance; as, the
transit of goods through a country.
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3. A line or route of passage or conveyance; as, the
Nicaragua transit. --E. G. Squier.
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4. (Astron.)
(a) The passage of a heavenly body over the meridian of a
place, or through the field of a telescope.
(b) The passage of a smaller body across the disk of a
larger, as of Venus across the sun's disk, or of a
satellite or its shadow across the disk of its
primary.
[1913 Webster]
5. An instrument resembling a theodolite, used by surveyors
and engineers; -- called also {transit compass}, and
{surveyor's transit}.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The surveyor's transit differs from the theodolite in
having the horizontal axis attached directly to the
telescope which is not mounted in Y's and can be turned
completely over about the axis.
[1913 Webster]
{Lower transit} (Astron.), the passage of a heavenly body
across that part of the meridian which is below the polar
axis.
{Surveyor's transit}. See {Transit}, 5, above.
{Transit circle} (Astron.), a transit instrument with a
graduated circle attached, used for observing the time of
transit and the declination at one observation. See
{Circle}, n., 3.
{Transit compass}. See {Transit}, 5, above.
{Transit duty}, a duty paid on goods that pass through a
country.
{Transit instrument}. (Astron.)
(a) A telescope mounted at right angles to a horizontal
axis, on which it revolves with its line of
collimation in the plane of the meridian, -- used in
connection with a clock for observing the time of
transit of a heavenly body over the meridian of a
place.
(b) (Surv.) A surveyor's transit. See {Transit}, 5, above.
{Transit trade} (Com.), the business conected with the
passage of goods through a country to their destination.
{Upper transit} (Astron.), the passage of a heavenly body
across that part of the meridian which is above the polar
axis.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Eclipse \E*clipse"\ ([-e]*kl[i^]ps"), n. [F. ['e]clipse, L.
eclipsis, fr. Gr. 'e`kleipsis, prop., a forsaking, failing,
fr. 'eklei`pein to leave out, forsake; 'ek out + lei`pein to
leave. See {Ex-}, and {Loan}.]
1. (Astron.) An interception or obscuration of the light of
the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention
of some other body, either between it and the eye, or
between the luminous body and that illuminated by it. A
lunar eclipse is caused by the moon passing through the
earth's shadow; a solar eclipse, by the moon coming
between the sun and the observer. A satellite is eclipsed
by entering the shadow of its primary. The obscuration of
a planet or star by the moon or a planet, though of the
nature of an eclipse, is called an {occultation}. The
eclipse of a small portion of the sun by Mercury or Venus
is called a {transit} of the planet.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In ancient times, eclipses were, and among
unenlightened people they still are, superstitiously
regarded as forerunners of evil fortune, a sentiment of
which occasional use is made in literature.
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That fatal and perfidious bark,
Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses
dark. --Milton.
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2. The loss, usually temporary or partial, of light,
brilliancy, luster, honor, consciousness, etc.;
obscuration; gloom; darkness.
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All the posterity of our fist parents suffered a
perpetual eclipse of spiritual life. --Sir W.
Raleigh.
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As in the soft and sweet eclipse,
When soul meets soul on lovers' lips. --Shelley.
[1913 Webster]
{Annular eclipse}. (Astron.) See under {Annular}.
{Cycle of eclipses}. See under {Cycle}.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
141 Moby Thesaurus words for "transit":
about-face, alchemy, alteration, assimilation, assumption,
astrolabe, azimuth circle, azimuth compass, becoming, bevel,
bevel protractor, bevel square, carriage, carrying, cartage,
change, change-over, clinometer, communication, commutation,
conduction, contagion, convection, conversion, conveyance, course,
cover, cross, crossing, delivery, deportation, diapedesis,
diffusion, dissemination, do, export, exportation, expulsion,
extradition, flip-flop, globe-trotting, go over, going, goniometer,
graphometer, growth, haulage, import, importation, interchange,
journeying, lapse, locomotion, measure, metastasis, metathesis,
metempsychosis, migration, motion, movement, moving,
mutual transfer, naturalization, osmosis, overpass, pantometer,
pass over, pass through, passage, passing, passing over, patrol,
perambulate, peregrinate, pererrate, perfusion, ply, progress,
progression, protractor, quadrant, radiogoniometer, range,
range over, re-formation, reconnoiter, reconversion, reduction,
resolution, reversal, scour, scour the country, scout, sextant,
shift, spread, spreading, sweep, switch, switch-over, theodolite,
tourism, touristry, track, traject, trajet, transduction, transfer,
transfer of property, transference, transferral, transformation,
transfusion, transit circle, transit instrument,
transit theodolite, transition, translation, translocation,
transmigration, transmigration of souls, transmission, transmittal,
transmittance, transplacement, transplantation, transport,
transportation, transporting, transposal, transposition, travel,
travel over, travel through, traveling, traversal, traverse,
traversing, turning into, volte-face, voyage
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