Dictionary
tran•sit
Pronunciation: (tran'sit, -zit), [key]
—n., v., -sit•ed, -sit•ing.
—
n.
1. the act or fact of passing across or through; passage from one place to another.
2. conveyance or transportation from one place to another, as of persons or goods, esp., local public transportation:
city transit. Cf.
mass transit.
3. a transition or change.
4. Astron.
a. the passage of a heavenly body across the meridian of a given location or through the field of a telescope.
b. the passage of Mercury or Venus across the disk of the sun, or of a satellite or its shadow across the face of its primary.
c. See
meridian circle.
5. Astrol.the passage of a planet in aspect to another planet or a specific point in a horoscope.
6. Survey.
a. Also called
transit instrument. an instrument, as a theodolite, having a telescope that can be transited, used for measuring horizontal and sometimes vertical angles.
b. a repeating transit theodolite.
7. (cap.) U.S. Aerospace.one of a series of satellites for providing positional data to ships and aircraft.
—
v.t.
1. to pass across or through.
2. Survey.to turn (the telescope of a transit) in a vertical plane in order to reverse direction; plunge.
3. Astron.to cross (a meridian, celestial body, etc.).
—
v.i.
1. to pass over or through something; make a transit.
2. Astron.to make a transit across a meridian, celestial body, etc.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
