Definition of "trance"

trance¹

/tɹɑːns/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural trances
1. (countable) A dazed or unconscious condition.
2. (countable) A state of awareness, concentration, or focus that filters experience and information (for example, a state of meditation or possession by some being).
  Quotations
  And he became very hungry, and would have eaten; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Acts 10:10
  My soul was ravished quite as in a trance.
  1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet XXXIX”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby; reprinted in Amoretti and Epithalamion (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas […], 1927,
3. (countable, psychology) A state of low response to stimulus and diminished, narrow attention; particularly one induced by hypnosis.
4. (uncountable, music) Short for trance music (“genre of electronic dance music”).
verb
third-person singular simple present trances, present participle trancing, simple past and past participle tranced
1. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) be in a trance; to entrance.
  Quotations
  And there I left him tranced.
  c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iii]
2. (transitive, rare) To create in or via a trance.
  Quotations
  The Horned Toad (kɛŋkak) tranced the rivers into being. A bakɔh bird tranced the mountains. The Scrub Bulbul (ˀɛsˀããs) drilled fire into existence with its beak. And, finally, the Bronzed Black Drongo (tɛrhɛɛh) tranced the year […]
  2014, Geoffrey Benjamin, Temiar Religion, 1964-2012, page 64
  What is interesting for us here is that Chingkai and her familiars dreamed and tranced the Temiar world into being. […]
  1995, Sue Jennings, Kevin Jennings, Theatre, Ritual, and Transformation: The Senoi Temiars, page 111

trance²

verb
third-person singular simple present trances, present participle trancing, simple past and past participle tranced
1. (obsolete outside Britain, dialectal, intransitive) To walk heavily or with some difficulty; to tramp, to trudge.
2. (obsolete outside Britain, dialectal, intransitive) To pass across or over; to traverse.
  Quotations
  Trance the world o'er.
  1626 February 1 (licensing date), John Fletcher [et al.], “The Faire Maide of the Inne”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
  After the flitting of the bats, / When thickest dark did trance the sky, / She drew the casement-curtain by, / And glanced athwart the glooming flats.
  1830 June, Alfred Tennyson, “Mariana”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, stanza II, page 11
3. (obsolete outside Britain, dialectal, intransitive) To travel quickly over a long distance.
noun
plural trances
1. (obsolete outside Britain, dialectal) A tedious journey.
  Quotations
  So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were weel kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; […]
  1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet

Definition of "trance"

trance1

noun

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verb

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trance2

verb

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noun

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trance¹

trance²