Trance (?), n. [F. transe fright, in
OF. also, trance or swoon, fr. transir to chill, benumb, to be
chilled, to shiver, OF. also, to die, L. transire to pass over, go
over, pass away, cease; trans across, over + ire to go; cf.
L. transitus a passing over. See Issue, and cf.
Transit.]
1. A tedious journey. [Prov. Eng.]
Halliwell.
2. A state in which the soul seems to have passed
out of the body into another state of being, or to be rapt into visions; an
ecstasy.
And he became very hungry, and would have eaten; but while
they made ready, he fell into a trance.
Acts. x.
10.
My soul was ravished quite as in a
trance.
Spenser.
3. (Med.) A condition, often simulating
death, in which there is a total suspension of the power of voluntary
movement, with abolition of all evidences of mental activity and the
reduction to a minimum of all the vital functions so that the patient lies
still and apparently unconscious of surrounding objects, while the
pulsation of the heart and the breathing, although still present, are
almost or altogether imperceptible.
He fell down in a trance.
Chaucer.Trance, v. t. [imp. & p. p.
Tranced (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Trancing (?).]
1. To entrance.
And three I left him tranced.
Shak.
2. To pass over or across; to traverse.
[Poetic]
Trance the world over.
Beau. &
Fl.
When thickest dark did trance the sky.
Tennyson.Trance (?), v. i. To pass; to
travel. [Obs.]