/tran"sit, -zit/ , n. , v. , transited, transiting .
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.
8. to pass across or through.
9. Survey. to turn (the telescope of a transit) in a vertical plane in order to reverse direction; plunge.
10. Astron. to cross (a meridian, celestial body, etc.).
v.i.
11. to pass over or through something; make a transit.
12. Astron. to make a transit across a meridian, celestial body, etc.
[ 1400-50; late ME (n. and v.) transitus a going across, passage, equiv. to transi-, var. s. of transire to cross ( trans- TRANS- + -ire to go) + -tus suffix of v. action ]