compass
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
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
Etymology: From Middle English compas (“a circle, circuit, limit, form, a mathematical instrument”), from Old French compas, from Medieval Latin compassus (“a circle, a circuit”), from Latin com- (“together”) + passus (“a pace, step, later a pass, way, route”); see pass, pace.
Senses: examples: text: [H]ow many Seas to our fore-fathers impaſſable, for want of the Compaſſe?
ref: 1625, [Samuel] Purchas, “Of the Improvement of Nauigation in Later Times, […]”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 1st part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, § I, page 2:
text: 1689/1690, John Locke, On improvement of understanding
He that […] first discovered the use of the compass […] did more for the propagation of knowledge […] than those who built workhouses.
text: a glance at his compass would have shown him that a northerly course instead of an easterly could not be right
ref: 1890, Wilhelm Westhofen, The Forth Bridge:
glosses: A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).
examples: text: to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please
ref: 1701, Jonathan Swift, chapter 5, in A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome:
glosses: A pair of compasses (a device used to draw circular arcs and transfer length measurements).
examples: text: You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
examples: text: In going up the Missisippi ^([sic]), we meet with nothing remarkable before we come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the river takes a large compass.
ref: 1763, M. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, PG, page 47:
text: Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.
ref: 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator:
text: Clara thought she had never seen him look so small and mean. He was as if trying to get himself into the smallest possible compass.
ref: 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Chapter 14”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
text: Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass.
ref: 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 161:
glosses: A space within limits; an area.
examples: text: within the compass of an encircling wall
glosses: An enclosing limit; a boundary, a circumference.
examples: text: In two hundred years before (I speak within compass), no such commission had been executed.
ref: c. 1610, John Davies, Historical Tracts:
text: "Saints!" she cried, "but what a noise you keep! Can you not speak in compass?"
ref: 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “In Mine Enemies' House”, in The Black Arrow:
glosses: Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within.
examples: text: the compass of his argument
ref: c. 1806–1809 (date written), William Wordsworth, “(please specify the page)”, in The Excursion, being a Portion of The Recluse, a Poem, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], published 1814, →OCLC:
text: There is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding.
ref: 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, Oxford University Press, published 1973, section 8:
text: How very commonly we hear it remarked that such and such thoughts are beyond the compass of words! I do not believe that any thought, properly so called, is out of the reach of language.
ref: 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia:
text: The 1664 pages of this Collegiate make it the most comprehensive ever published. And its treatment of words is as nearly exhaustive as the compass of an abridged work permits.
ref: 2003, Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, Merriam-Webster, →ISBN, page 6a:
glosses: Synonym of scope.
synonyms: word: scope
examples: text: Lou's not Times foole, though roſie lips and cheeks
VVithin his bending ſickles compaſſe come,
Loue alters not with his breefe houres and vveekes,
But beares it out euen to the edge of doome:
If this be error and vpon me proued,
I neuer vvrit, nor no man euer loued.
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature H, recto:
text: Then when our powers in points of ſwords are ioin’d
And cloſde in compaſſe of the killing bullet,
Though ſtraite the paſſage and the port be made,
That leads to Pallace of my brothers life,
Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
glosses: Range, reach.
examples: text: They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Kings iii:9:
text: This day I breathed first; time is come round, / And where I did begin, there shall I end; / My life is run his compass.
ref: 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
glosses: A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.
topics: architecture
business
carpentry
construction
manufacturing
shipbuilding
glosses: A curved circular form.
Synonyms: sense: magnetic direction finder
word: magnetic compass
sense: device used to draw circular curves
word: pair of compasses
Hyponyms: sense: pair of compasses
word: beam compass
Derived terms: all points of the compass
astrocompass
beam compass
biocompass
bow compass
box the compass
Brunton compass
cabin compass
Chinese compass
color compass
compass card
compass deflection
compass dial
compass error
compass jellyfish
compassless
compass needle
compass out
compass plane
compass plant
compass point
compass rose
compass saw
compass swing
compass termite
compass timber
compass wallah
compass window
every point of the compass
fetch a compass
gyro compass
gyrocompass
gyromagnetic compass
gyroscope compass
gyroscopic compass
hanging compass
magnetic compass
mariner's compass
moral compass
pair of compasses
prismatic compass
qibla compass
radio compass
scribing compass
Square and Compass
tell-tale compass
telltale compass
variation compass