compass

1. 1

   A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).

   • 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.
2. 2

   A pair of compasses (a device used to draw circular arcs and transfer length measurements).

   • to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please
3. 3

   The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.

   • You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass.
4. 4

   A space within limits; an area.obsolete

   • 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.
   • 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.
5. 5

   An enclosing limit; a boundary, a circumference.obsolete

   • within the compass of an encircling wall
6. 6

   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.
   • "Saints!" she cried, "but what a noise you keep! Can you not speak in compass?"
7. 7

   Synonym of scope.formal

   • the compass of his argument
   • 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.
8. 8

   Range, reach.obsolete

   • 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.
9. 9

   A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.obsolete

   • This day I breathed first; time is come round, / And where I did begin, there shall I end; / My life is run his compass.
   • They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.
10. 10

    A curved circular form.

syn. pair of compasses

1. 1

   To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.

   • Now all the blessings Of a glad father compass thee about!
   • And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
2. 2

   To go about or round entirely; to traverse.

   • So she goeth around the hill compassing.
3. 3

   To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.dated

   • […] 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; […]
   • [...] they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.
4. 4

   To plot; to scheme (against someone).dated

   • But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, …

1. 1

   In a circuit; round about.obsolete

   • [T]he Towne is impailed about halfe a mile compaſſe.
   • Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances, […]