compass
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: kŭmʹpəs
ipa: /ˈkʌmpəs/
ipa: /ˈkɐmpəs/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈkəmpəs/
note: spelling pronunciation
enpr: kŏmʹpəs
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈkɔmpəs/
note: father-bother merger
ipa: /ˈkɑmpəs/
Forms: form: compasses
form: compassing
form: compassed
form: compassed
Etymology: From Middle English compassen (“to go around, make a circuit, draw a circle, contrive, intend”), from Old French compasser; from the noun; see compass as a noun.
Senses: examples: text: Now all the blessings
Of a glad father compass thee about!
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
text: And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 2:13:
text: Jack was called plucky, and he was, but it took all the strength of will that the slim, resolute engineer possessed, to hold him to his purpose, when he faced about and surveyed the unimpassive faces which compassed him.
ref: 1899, Martha Frye Boggs, Jack Crews, page 237:
glosses: To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.
glosses: To go about or round entirely; to traverse.
examples: text: […] tho' theſe ſeem'd to be very unfit Inſtruments for compaſſing of that great Deſign for which they were then employ'd, becauſe of their Inability and Uncapacity in performing the Work ſo very great and important; […]
ref: 1720, John Shaw, “Of Religion”, in The Fundamental Doctrines of the Church of England, […], volume I, London: […] George Strahan, […] William Mears, […], page 36:
text: [...] they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.
ref: 1763, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by M. Nugent, Emilius; or, an essay on education, page 117:
text: [...] to settle the end of our action or disputation; and then to take fit and effectual means to compass that end.
ref: 1816, Catholicon: or, the Christian Philosopher, volume 3, July to December 1816, page 56:
text: [...] and was an artful flatterer, when that was necessary to compass his end, in which generally he was successful.
ref: 1857, Gilbert Burnet, Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time: from the Restoration of King Charles the Second to the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht in the Reign of Queen Anne, page 657:
text: The immediate problem is how to compass that end: by the seizure of territory or by the cultivation of the goodwill of the people whose business she seeks.
ref: 1921 November 23, The New Republic, volume 28, number 364, page 2:
glosses: To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.
examples: text: That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion [...]
ref: 1600, R. Bagshaw, “The Arraignment and Judgement of Captain Thomas Lee”, in Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials, volume 1, published 1809, pages 1403–04:
text: But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, …
ref: 1794 November 1, Speech of Mr. Erskine in Behalf of Hardy, published in 1884, by Chauncey Allen Goodrich, in Select British Eloquence, page 719
text: The Bavarian felt a mad wave of desire for her sweep over him. What scheme wouldn't he compass to mould that girl to his wishes.
ref: 1915, The Wireless Age, volume 2, page 580:
glosses: To plot; to scheme (against someone).
Synonyms: sense: surround
word: encircle
sense: surround
word: environ
sense: surround
word: surround
sense: go about or around entirely
word: cover
sense: go about or around entirely
word: traverse
sense: accomplish
word: accomplish
sense: accomplish
word: achieve
sense: accomplish
word: attain
sense: accomplish
word: gain
sense: accomplish
word: get to
sense: accomplish
word: reach
sense: plot (against someone)
word: conspire
sense: plot (against someone)
word: plot
sense: plot (against someone)
word: scheme
Derived terms: accompass
compassable
encompass
incompass
outcompass