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Compass   /kˈəmpəs/   Listen
noun
Compass  n.  
1.
A passing round; circuit; circuitous course. "They fetched a compass of seven day's journey." "This day I breathed first; time is come round, And where I did begin, there shall I end; My life is run his compass."
2.
An inclosing limit; boundary; circumference; as, within the compass of an encircling wall.
3.
An inclosed space; an area; extent. "Their wisdom... lies in a very narrow compass."
4.
Extent; reach; sweep; capacity; sphere; as, the compass of his eye; the compass of imagination. "The compass of his argument."
5.
Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within. "In two hundred years before (I speak within compass), no such commission had been executed."
6.
(Mus.) The range of notes, or tones, within the capacity of a voice or instrument. "You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass."
7.
An instrument for determining directions upon the earth's surface by means of a magnetized bar or needle turning freely upon a pivot and pointing in a northerly and southerly direction. "He that first discovered the use of the compass did more for the supplying and increase of useful commodities than those who built workhouses."
8.
A pair of compasses. (R.) See Compasses. "To fix one foot of their compass wherever they please."
9.
A circle; a continent. (Obs.) "The tryne compas (the threefold world containing earth, sea, and heaven.)"
Azimuth compass. See under Azimuth.
Beam compass. See under Beam.
Compass card, the circular card attached to the needles of a mariner's compass, on which are marked the thirty-two points or rhumbs.
Compass dial, a small pocket compass fitted with a sundial to tell the hour of the day.
Compass plane (Carp.), a plane, convex in the direction of its length on the under side, for smoothing the concave faces of curved woodwork.
Compass plant, Compass flower (Bot.), a plant of the American prairies (Silphium laciniatum), not unlike a small sunflower; rosinweed. Its lower and root leaves are vertical, and on the prairies are disposed to present their edges north and south. "Its leaves are turned to the north as true as the magnet: This is the compass flower." Compass saw, a saw with a narrow blade, which will cut in a curve; called also fret saw and keyhole saw. Compass timber (Shipbuilding), curved or crooked timber. Compass window (Arch.), a circular bay window or oriel window. Mariner's compass, a kind of compass used in navigation. It has two or more magnetic needles permanently attached to a card, which moves freely upon a pivot, and is read with reference to a mark on the box representing the ship's head. The card is divided into thirty-two points, called also rhumbs, and the glass-covered box or bowl containing it is suspended in gimbals within the binnacle, in order to preserve its horizontal position. Surveyor's compass, an instrument used in surveying for measuring horizontal angles. See Circumferentor. Variation compass, a compass of delicate construction, used in observations on the variations of the needle. To fetch a compass, to make a circuit.


verb
Compass  v. t.  (past & past part. compassed; pres. part. compassing)  
1.
To go about or entirely round; to make the circuit of. "Ye shall compass the city seven times." "We the globe can compass soon."
2.
To inclose on all sides; to surround; to encircle; to environ; to invest; to besiege; used with about, round, around, and round about. "With terrors and with clamors compassed round." "Now all the blessings Of a glad father compass thee about." "Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round."
3.
To reach round; to circumvent; to get within one's power; to obtain; to accomplish. "If I can check my erring love, I will: If not, to compass her I'll use my skill." "How can you hope to compass your designs?"
4.
To curve; to bend into a circular form. (Obs. except in carpentry and shipbuilding.)
5.
(Law) To purpose; to intend; to imagine; to plot. "Compassing and imagining the death of the king are synonymous terms; compassing signifying the purpose or design of the mind or will, and not, as in common speech, the carrying such design to effect."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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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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