trans|it

trans|it «TRAN siht, -ziht», noun, verb, -it|ed, -it|ing.

–n.

1. a) the act of carrying or state of being carried across or through: »

The goods were damaged in transit.

b) the act or process of carrying people from one place to another by trains, buses, or other conveyances: »

All transit systems are crowded during the rush hours.

2. the act or fact of passing across or through: »

Transit across the icy little bridge was dangerous.

3. a transition or change, especially the passage from this life to the next by death.

4. an instrument used in surveying to measure horizontal and vertical angles; a theodolite with a telescope that can be rotated through a full circle.

5. Astronomy. a) the meridian of a place, or through the field of a telescope. b) the passage of a celestial body across the disk of a larger one.

–v.t.

1. to pass across or through; traverse.

2. to turn (the telescope of a transit) around its horizontal axis to point in the opposite direction.

–v.i.

to pass through or over or across.

╂[< Latin trānsitus, -ūs < trānsīre; see etym. under transient (Cf. ↑transient)]