transit

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