[tran.sit] n [ME transite, fr. L transitus, fr. transire to go across, pass] (15c) 1 a: an act, process, or instance of passing through or over: passage b: change, transition c (1): conveyance of persons or things from one place to another (2): usu. local transportation esp. of people by public conveyance; also: vehicles or a system engaged in such transportation
2. a: passage of a celestial body over the meridian of a place or through the field of a telescope b: passage of a smaller body (as Venus) across the disk of a larger (as the sun)
3: a theodolite with the telescope mounted so that it can be transited
[2]transit vi (15c): to make a transit ~ vt 1 a : to pass over or through: traverse b: to cause to pass over or through
2: to pass across (a meridian, a celestial body, or the field of view of a telescope)
3: to turn (a telescope) over about the horizontal transverse axis in surveying