Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of passing over, across, or through; passage.
  • noun Conveyance of people or goods from one place to another, especially on a local public transportation system.
  • noun The system or vehicles used for such conveyance.
  • noun A transition or change, as to a spiritual existence at death.
  • noun The passage of a celestial body across the observer's meridian.
  • noun The passage of a smaller celestial body or its shadow across the disk of a larger celestial body.
  • noun A surveying instrument similar to a theodolite that measures horizontal and vertical angles.
  • intransitive verb To pass over, across, or through.
  • intransitive verb Astronomy To make a transit across (a celestial body as perceived by an observer), as a planet passing between the sun and Earth.
  • intransitive verb To revolve (the telescope of a surveying transit) about its horizontal transverse axis in order to reverse its direction.
  • intransitive verb To make a transit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • On a surveyors’ transit, to turn (the telescope) over so as to make it point, in the opposite direction.
  • noun in astronomy, the passage or transit of a star across the meridian at the point opposite to the point of culmination. In the case of a circumpolar star it is often called lower culmination or transit sub polo.
  • To pass over the disk of, as of a heavenly body.
  • noun The act of passing; a passing over or through; a passage; the act of moving, or the state of being conveyed; also, the act or process of causing to pass; conveyance: as, the transit of goods through a country; the problem of rapid transit in cities.
  • noun A line of passage or conveyance through a country: as, the Nicaragua transit.
  • noun In astronomy: The passage of a heavenly body aeross the meridian of any place. The right ascension of such a body is the sidereal time of its upper transit.
  • noun The passage of a celestial body (specifically either of the planets Mercury and Venus) across the sun's disk, or of a satellite, or the shadow of a satellite, across the face of its primary. The passage of the moon across the sun's face, however, is called an eclipse.
  • noun An abbreviation of transit-circle or transitinstrument.
  • noun An instrument used in surveying for measuring horizontal angles.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (Astron.) To pass over the disk of (a heavenly body).
  • noun The act of passing; passage through or over.
  • noun The act or process of causing to pass; conveyance.
  • noun A line or route of passage or conveyance.
  • noun The passage of a heavenly body over the meridian of a place, or through the field of a telescope.
  • noun 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.
  • noun An instrument resembling a theodolite, used by surveyors and engineers; -- called also transit compass, and surveyor's transit.
  • noun (Astron.) the passage of a heavenly body across that part of the meridian which is below the polar axis.
  • noun See Transit, 5, above.
  • noun (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.
  • noun See Transit, 5, above.
  • noun a duty paid on goods that pass through a country.
  • noun (Astron.), (Surv.) A surveyor's transit. See Transit, 5, above.
  • noun (Com.) the business conected with the passage of goods through a country to their destination.
  • noun (Astron.) the passage of a heavenly body across that part of the meridian which is above the polar axis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of passing over, across, or through something.
  • noun The conveyance of people or goods from one place to another, especially on a public transportation system; the vehicles used for such conveyance.
  • noun astronomy The passage of a celestial body across the observer's meridian, or across the disk of a larger celestial body.
  • noun A surveying instrument rather like a theodolite that measures horizontal and vertical angles.
  • noun navigation an imaginary line between two objects whose positions are known. When the navigator sees one object directly in front of the other, then navigator knows that his position is on the transit.
  • noun UK a Ford Transit van.
  • noun Internet to carry communications traffic to and from a customer or another network on a compensation basis as opposed to peerage in which the traffic to and from another network is carried on an equivalency basis or without charge.
  • verb To pass over, across or through something
  • verb To revolve an instrument about its horizontal axis so as to reverse its direction
  • verb astronomy, intransitive To make a transit

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb pass across (a sign or house of the zodiac) or pass across (the disk of a celestial body or the meridian of a place)
  • noun a facility consisting of the means and equipment necessary for the movement of passengers or goods

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English transite, from Latin trānsitus, from past participle of trānsīre, to go across; see transient.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French, from Latin transire ("to go across, pass in, pass through"), from trans ("over") + ire ("to go").

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Examples

  • As I write this I'm in transit from a four day Argentina Dove hunt.

    Ruger Red Label 2009

  • Preparing fish for the rigors of a plane ride and as long as 48 hours in transit is a very closely guarded trade secret; many companies refuse outright to talk about it.

    Swimming Upstream Donald Frazier 2010

  • The one good thing about spending so many hours in transit is that I had a lot of time read, and I read some great stuff, so look out for a few book posts in the coming weeks.

    Sweet Surrender - Maya Banks Nalini Singh 2008

  • The one good thing about spending so many hours in transit is that I had a lot of time read, and I read some great stuff, so look out for a few book posts in the coming weeks.

    Archive 2008-09-01 Nalini Singh 2008

  • A claim for loss of, or damage to, household goods in transit is primarily a matter entirely between the owner and the carrier.

    EXECUTIVE ORDER 10053 1949

  • He compares the method of raising funds for public transport what we call transit in Britain and France.

    A transport tax would get us moving « Stephen Rees's blog 2009

  • ROMANS (on camera): The State Department says Canada has evolved from what it calls a transit country to a source country for ecstasy.

    CNN Transcript Mar 1, 2007 2007

  • We're doing interdiction in what we call the transit zones, where the drugs are coming across the water.

    Briefing By Drug Control Director Lee Brown ITY National Archives 1994

  • "This discovery is the first clear detection of significant changes in the intervals from one planetary transit to the next, what we call transit timing variations," said Matthew Holman, a

    News and Features - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2010

  • Are there situations where the science says mass transit is a good idea?

    Mass Transit and Happiness, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • They scanned the data for signs of transits, which occur when a planet blocks out the light when passing in front of a star or other bright object.

    Astronomers may have found the first planet in another galaxy #author.fullName} 2020

  • The segmentation of cargo involves a veritable Russian Doll of containment, beginning with the outermost layer of pallets and the materials used to hold them to the product they carry — “tertiary” or “transit” packaging in logistics parlance.

    On Stretch Wrap Anna Pendergrast 2023

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