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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



... excursion into Maine, partly to examine the drift phenomena on the islands and coast of that State, and partly to study the so-called "horse-backs." The journey proved to be one of the most interesting he had made in this country with reference to local glacial phenomena. Compass in hand, he followed the extraordinary ridges of morainic material lying between Bangor and Katahdin, to the Ebeene Mountains, at the foot of which are the Katahdin Iron Works. Returning to Bangor, he pursued, with the same minute investigation, the glacial tracks and erratic ...
— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz
... started again at 2 p.m. At 2.20 made one mile north-east to the plain. At 3.10 made two miles and a half north. At 7.15 made ten miles and a half north-east to lookout-tree, which we made steering by compass. At this place I gave the horses almost all that was left of the water, as I thought that Fisherman would be able easily to lead the way to Camp 16, and I being so confident of this paid no attention to the course that he was leading me. At 11.30 I found that ...
— Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria - In search of Burke and Wills • William Landsborough
... king, which Madame Roland did so much to compass, led not indirectly to the ruin of her own most trusted political friends and associates. The murder of the queen, for which she had longed and laboured, was brought to pass, on October 16, 1793, by men who had then made up their minds to send herself to the scaffold, ...
— France and the Republic - A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces - During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 • William Henry Hurlbert
... think themselves right in the end. We want thought on the subject of Marriage—calm, consecutive, serious thought. Nothing else will do. We have passion, zeal, impulse, imagination; but we lack thought. Thought is the helm of passion, the ballast of imagination, the compass of impulse. Let youth think on the subject as they ought, and ...
— Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women • George Sumner Weaver
... the Taepings in almost daily encounters, during one of which the Firefly steamer was retaken, and its English captain killed. In consequence of this all the Europeans left the service of the Taepings, and as their fleet had been almost entirely destroyed, they were now hemmed in within a small compass, and Gordon himself estimated that they ought to be finally overcome within two months. In this hope he resumed the command, and his decision was officially approved of and confirmed by the British Minister ...
— The Life of Gordon, Volume I • Demetrius Charles Boulger


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