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Overcome vs Traverse - What's the difference?

overcome | traverse |

As verbs the difference between overcome and traverse

is that overcome is to surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of while traverse is .

overcome

English

Verb

  • To surmount (a physical or abstract obstacle); to prevail over, to get the better of.
  • :to overcome enemies in battle
  • *Spenser
  • *:This wretched woman overcome / Of anguish, rather than of crime, hath been.
  • *1898 , , (Moonfleet), Ch.4:
  • *:By and by fumes of brandy began to fill the air, and climb to where I lay, overcoming the mouldy smell of decayed wood and the dampness of the green walls.
  • (obsolete) To win (a battle).
  • *:
  • *:Ther with all cam kyng Arthur but with a fewe peple and slewe on the lyfte hand and on the ryght hand that wel nyhe ther escaped no man / but alle were slayne to the nombre of xxx M / And whan the bataille was all ended the kynge kneled doune and thanked god mekely / and thenne he sente for the quene and soone she was come / and she maade grete Ioye of the ouercomynge of that bataille
  • To win or prevail in some sort of battle, contest, etc.
  • :
  • *
  • , chapter=2, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired. And if the arts of humbleness failed him, he overcame you by sheer impudence.}}
  • (usually in passive) To overwhelm with emotion.
  • :
  • To come or pass over; to spread over.
  • *Shakespeare
  • *:And overcome us like a summer's cloud.
  • To overflow; to surcharge.
  • :
  • References

    * *

    traverse

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (climbing) A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent.
  • (military) In fortification, a mass of earth or other material employed to protect troops against enfilade. It is constructed at right angles to the parapet.
  • (surveying) A series of points, with angles and distances measured between, traveled around a subject, usually for use as "control" i.e. angular reference system for later surveying work.
  • (obsolete) A screen or partition.
  • * 1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Court :
  • Than sholde ye see there pressynge in a pace / Of one and other that wolde this lady see, / Whiche sat behynde a traves of sylke fyne, / Of golde of tessew the fynest that myghte be
  • * F. Beaumont
  • At the entrance of the king, / The first traverse was drawn.
  • Something that thwarts or obstructs.
  • He would have succeeded, had it not been for unlucky traverses not under his control.
  • A trick; a subterfuge.
  • (architecture) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.
  • (Gwilt)
  • (legal) A formal denial of some matter of fact alleged by the opposite party in any stage of the pleadings. The technical words introducing a traverse are absque hoc ("without this", i.e. without what follows).
  • (nautical) The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course.
  • (geometry) A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal.
  • (firearms) The turning of a gun so as to make it point in any desired direction.
  • Verb

  • To travel across, often under difficult conditions.
  • He will have to traverse the mountain to get to the other side.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • what seas you traversed , and what fields you fought
  • (computing) To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly.
  • to traverse all nodes in a network
  • (artillery) To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target.
  • to traverse a cannon
  • (climbing) To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle.
  • To lay in a cross direction; to cross.
  • * Dryden
  • The parts should be often traversed , or crossed, by the flowing of the folds.
  • To cross by way of opposition; to thwart with obstacles; to obstruct.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • I cannot but admit the force of this reasoning, which I yet hope to traverse .
  • To pass over and view; to survey carefully.
  • * South
  • My purpose is to traverse the nature, principles, and properties of this detestable vice — ingratitude.
  • (carpentry) To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood.
  • to traverse a board
  • (legal) To deny formally.
  • * Dryden
  • And save the expense of long litigious laws, / Where suits are traversed , and so little won / That he who conquers is but last undone.

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • athwart; across; crosswise
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Lying across; being in a direction across something else.
  • paths cut with traverse trenches
  • * Sir H. Wotton
  • Oak being strong in all positions, may be better trusted in cross and traverse work.
  • * Hayward
  • the ridges of the fallow field traverse

    Derived terms

    * traverse drill

    Anagrams

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