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transit
[ tran-zit, -sit ]
noun
- the act or fact of passing across or through; passage from one place to another:
The area continues to be affected by the transit of illegal drugs bound for major cities.
- conveyance or transportation of people or goods from one place to another, especially local public transportation: Compare mass transit ( def ).
Improving city transit is a high priority for the new mayor.
- a transition or change:
The transit of autumn to winter saw woodpecker season in full swing and Canada geese on the move.
- Astronomy.
- the passage of a heavenly body across the meridian of a given location or through the field of a telescope:
The experiments lasted long enough for us to detect the transit of black holes with a mass of up to 10 times that of our sun.
- 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:
In June 2012, a NASA webcast enabled the public to view the transit of Venus across the solar disk.
- Astrology. the passage of a planet through one of the twelve houses or divisions of the celestial sphere or across the position held by another planet in a person’s birth chart:
The transit of Mars is happening in the third house for you, so expect a shift in things concerning home and family.
- Also called transit theodolite, transit instrument. Surveying. a type of theodolite having a telescope that can be flipped vertically to reverse the direction of view: used for measuring horizontal and often vertical angles, sometimes with the ability to take successive measurements of the same angle and average them for greater accuracy.
- Transit, U.S. Aerospace. one of a series of satellites for providing positional data to ships and aircraft.
verb (used with object)
- to pass across or through:
Many millions of oil barrels transit the Suez Canal every day.
It’s fairly easy to intercept emails as they transit the internet.
- Surveying, Astronomy. to flip (a telescope) vertically in order to reverse the direction of view.
- Astronomy. to cross (a meridian, celestial body, etc.):
Mercury transits the sun about 13 or 14 times each century.
verb (used without object)
- to pass over, through, into, or out of something:
Are you planning on transiting through the United States?
Attackers can hijack your data as it transits to and from your system.
- Astronomy. to make a passage across a meridian, celestial body, etc.:
The probe was looking for planets transiting across the face of stars.
transit
/ ˈtrænz-; ˈtrænsɪt /
noun
- the passage or conveyance of goods or people
- ( as modifier )
a transit visa
- a change or transition
- a route
- astronomy
- the passage of a celestial body or satellite across the face of a relatively larger body as seen from the earth
- the apparent passage of a celestial body across the meridian, caused by the earth's diurnal rotation
- astrology the passage of a planet across some special point on the zodiac
- in transitin transit while being conveyed; during passage
verb
- to make a transit through or over (something)
- astronomy to make a transit across (a celestial body or the meridian)
- to cause (the telescope of a surveying instrument) to turn over or (of such a telescope) to be turned over in a vertical plane so that it points in the opposite direction
transit
/ trăn′sĭt /
- The passage of a smaller celestial body or its shadow across the disk of a larger celestial body. As observed from Earth, Mercury and Venus are the only planets of the solar system that make transits of the Sun, because they are the only planets with orbits that lie between Earth and the Sun. Mercury makes an average of 13 transits of the Sun each century. Transits of Venus across the Sun are much rarer, with only 7 of them having occurred between 1639 and 2004. In contrast, transits of Jupiter's moons across its disk are common occurrences.
- Compare occultation
- The passage of a celestial body across the celestial meridian (the great circle on the celestial sphere passing through the celestial poles and an observer's zenith). For any observer, the object is at its highest in the sky at its transit of the observer's meridian.
- See more at celestial meridian
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Derived Forms
- ˈtransitable, adjective
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of transit1
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Idioms and Phrases
- in transit. in transit.
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Example Sentences
While transit officials have spent the past six years reprioritizing safety over expansion and performance, Metro estimates it’s still about $5 billion behind where it should be.
The transit system also will run more Yellow Line trains from Franconia-Springfield to Mount Vernon Square, Metro said.
As of last June, it had 64 code compliance inspectors employed by MTS who issue citations for transit system and quality-of-life violations, and about 140 private security guards who could not write tickets.
Hart said Alexandria will have the capacity to drive all students who have said they want to return for in-person learning — but she still urged parents who can do so to pursue other methods of transit.
States, in turn, could make those funds available to cash-strapped cities, counties and transit systems.
Listen up, commuters—your public transit rides are about to get a lot less gross!
The paperwork was spotless: he had died in transit, the conjunction of a weak heart and long trip.
Its method of transit is direct person-to-person contact with body fluids.
On top of the $8-10K salary, visa and transit costs will be covered.
In Georgia, MARTA (the Metropolitan Atlantic Rapid Transit Authority) built a huge solar canopy at its bus depot in Decatur.
When the reserve transfers are completed checks in transit can no longer count as reserves.
Am I to check the number of rounds in the limbers; on the beaches and in transit during a battle?
Since then the whole of the trade of transit by rail has been conducted by the companies owning the lines.
Two and a half months, plus half a month for delay, plus another month for sea transit, makes four months!
High water takes place at eight hours and a half after the moon's transit.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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