COMPASS • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Compass

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/kˈəmpəs/ Listen

Compass

noun

1.

Navigational instrument for finding directions.

2.

An area in which something acts or operates or has power or control:. Synonyms: ambit, orbit, range, reach, scope. "A piano has a greater range than the human voice" , "The ambit of municipal legislation" , "Within the compass of this article" , "Within the scope of an investigation" , "Outside the reach of the law" , "In the political orbit of a world power"

3.

The limit of capability. Synonyms: grasp, range, reach.

4.

Drafting instrument used for drawing circles.

verb

(past & past part. compassed; pres. part. compassing)

1.

Bring about; accomplish.

2.

Travel around, either by plane or ship. Synonym: circumnavigate.

3.

Get the meaning of something. Synonyms: apprehend, comprehend, dig, get the picture, grasp, grok, savvy.

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Related searches:

cardinal compass point

magnetic compass

mariner's compass

WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Compass" Quotes from Famous Books

... is conjoined with the music of birds, and the odour of flowers."—Kames cor. "The last order resembles the second in the mildness of its accent, and the softness of its pause."—Id. "Before the use of the loadstone, or the knowledge of the compass."—Dryden cor. "The perfect participle and the imperfect tense ought not to be confounded."—Murray cor. "In proportion as the taste of a poet or an orator becomes more refined."—Blair cor. "A situation can never be more intricate, so long as there is an angel, a devil, or a ...

— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... cloud. The flight-commander takes the mouthpiece of his telephone tube and shouts to me that he intends completing the round above the clouds. To let me search for railway and other traffic he will descend into view of the ground at the most important points. He now sets a compass course for Toutpres, the first large town of the reconnaissance, while I search all around for possible enemies. At present the sky is clear, but at any minute enemy police craft may appear from the unbroken blue or rise ...

— Cavalry of the Clouds • Alan Bott

... were really valuable paintings, were securely hung in the panels; and the stern-windows were fitted with handsome lace curtains, much too large for the position which they occupied. Two very handsome swinging lamps, of different designs, were suspended from the beams; a tell-tale compass and a ship's barometer occupied respectively the fore and after ends of the skylight; and the bulkhead which formed the fore end of the cabin was fitted above the sideboard with racks in which reposed ...

— The Pirate Island - A Story of the South Pacific • Harry Collingwood

... those we'll dive and hide somewhere for a while. Give old man Gedge something to scratch his head about, lookin' for us. Then we'll play round and test the apparatus.... You'll be able to observe the compass all the time, and I'll give you the distances. There's ...

— The Long Trick • Lewis Anselm da Costa Ritchie

... of 'the lives of the saints,' which it is my handbook of pleasant figments and this ended, instantly struck up and whistled one of Cul de Jatte's devil's ditties, and played it on the psaltery to boot. Thou knowest Heaven hath bestowed on me a rare whistle, both for compass and tune. And with me whistling bright and full this sprightly air, and making the wires slow when the tune did gallop, and tripping when the tune did amble, or I did stop and shake on one note like a lark i' the air, ...

— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

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