traverse vs windrow

traverse

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

  • 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 traverse board. 

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

verb
  • To use the motions of opposition or counteraction. 

  • To travel across, often under difficult conditions. 

  • 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 

windrow

noun
  • A ridge or berm at a perimeter 

  • The green border of a field, dug up in order to carry the earth onto other land to improve it. 

  • A line of snow left behind by the edge of a snowplow’s blade. 

  • A long snowbank along the side of a road. 

  • A line of leaves etc heaped up by the wind. 

  • A similar streak of seaweed etc on the surface of the sea formed by Langmuir circulation. 

  • A line of gravel left behind by the edge of a grader’s blade. 

  • A row of cut grain or hay allowed to dry in a field. 

verb
  • To arrange (e.g. new-made hay) in lines or windrows. 

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