tran·sit (trăn'sĭt, -zĭt)
n.

1. The act of passing over, across, or through; passage.
2. 1. Conveyance of people or goods from one place to another, especially on a local public transportation system.
   2. The system or vehicles used for such conveyance.
3. A transition or change, as to a spiritual existence at death.
4. Astronomy.
   1. The passage of a celestial body across the observer's meridian.
   2. The passage of a smaller celestial body or its shadow across the disk of a larger celestial body.
5. A surveying instrument similar to a theodolite that measures horizontal and vertical angles.

v., -sit·ed, -sit·ing, -sits.

v.tr.

1. To pass over, across, or through: aircraft transiting the United States and Canada.
2. To revolve (the telescope of a surveying transit) about its horizontal transverse axis in order to reverse its direction.

v.intr. Astronomy
To make a transit.

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

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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