compass

noun

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

   “[H]ow many Seas to our fore-fathers impaſſable, for want of the Compaſſe?”

   “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.”

   “a glance at his compass would have shown him that a northerly course instead of an easterly could not be right”

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. 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. (obsolete)A space within limits; an area.

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

5. (obsolete)An enclosing limit; a boundary, a circumference.

   “within the compass of an encircling wall”

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. (formal)Synonym of scope.

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

8. (obsolete)Range, reach.

   “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.”

   “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. (obsolete)A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.

   “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.”

   “Kim slid out quietly into the night, walked half round the house, keeping close to the walls, and headed away from the station for a mile or so. Then, fetching a wide compass, he worked back at leisure, for he needed time to invent a story if any of Mahbub's retainers asked questions.”

10. A curved circular form.

verb

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.”

   “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.”

2. To go about or round entirely; to traverse.

   “So she goeth around the hill compassing.”

3. (dated)To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.

   “[…] 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.”

   “[...] to settle the end of our action or disputation; and then to take fit and effectual means to compass that end.”

   “[...] and was an artful flatterer, when that was necessary to compass his end, in which generally he was successful.”

   “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.”

4. (dated)To plot; to scheme (against someone).

   “That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion [...]”

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

   “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.”

adv

1. (obsolete)In a circuit; round about.

   “[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, […]”