cruise vs traverse

cruise

verb
  • To move about an area leisurely in the hope of discovering something, or looking for custom. 

  • To travel at constant speed for maximum operating efficiency. 

  • To actively seek a romantic partner or casual sexual partner by moving about a particular area; to troll. 

  • To sail about, especially for pleasure. 

  • To take part in a cruise (car enthusiasts' event where they drive their vehicles in a group). 

  • To walk while holding on to an object (stage in development of ambulation, typically occurring at 10 months). 

  • To win easily and convincingly. 

  • To inspect (forest land) for the purpose of estimating the quantity of lumber it will yield. 

noun
  • Portion of aircraft travel at a constant airspeed and altitude between ascent and descent phases. 

  • A sea or lake voyage, especially one taken for pleasure. 

  • A car enthusiasts' event where they drive their vehicles in a group. See Cruising (driving). 

  • A small cup; cruse. 

  • A period spent in the Marine Corps. 

traverse

verb
  • To travel across, often under difficult conditions. 

  • To use the motions of opposition or counteraction. 

  • To lay in a cross direction; to cross. 

  • To (make a cutting, an incline) across the gradients of a sloped face at safe rate. 

  • To plane in a direction across the grain of the wood. 

  • To deny formally. 

  • To visit all parts of; to explore thoroughly. 

  • To climb or descend a steep hill at a wide angle (relative to the slope). 

  • To rotate a gun around a vertical axis to bear upon a military target. 

  • To act against; to thwart or obstruct. 

  • To pass over and view; to survey carefully. 

adv
  • athwart; across; crosswise 

adj
  • Lying across; being in a direction across something else. 

noun
  • In trench warfare, a defensive trench built to prevent enfilade. 

  • 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). 

  • Something that thwarts or obstructs. 

  • The zigzag course or courses made by a ship in passing from one place to another; a compound course. 

  • A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building. 

  • A route used in mountaineering, specifically rock climbing, in which the descent occurs by a different route than the ascent. 

  • 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. 

  • A line lying across a figure or other lines; a transversal. 

  • A traverse board. 

How often have the words cruise and traverse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )