Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TRANS-GRESS', v.t. [Fr. transgresser; L. trangressus, transgredior; trans and gradior, to pass.]

1. To pass over or beyond any limit; to surpass. Dryden.
2. In a moral sense, to overpass any rule prescribed as the limit of duty; to break or violate a law, civil or moral. To transgress a divine law, is sin. Legislators should not transgress laws of their own making.