Compass

Pronunciation

• enPR: kÅ­mʹpÉ™s, IPA: /ˈkÊŒm.pÉ™s/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒmpÉ™s

Origin

For noun: 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.

For verb: 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.

Full definition of compass

Noun

1. A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).
• John LockeHe that first discovered the use of the compass did more for the supplying and increase of useful commodities than those who built workhouses.
2. A pair of compasses (a device used to draw an arc or circle).
• Jonathan Swiftto fix one foot of their compass wherever they please
3. (music) The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
• ShakespeareYou would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass.
4. (obsolete) A space within limits; area.
• 1763, M. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), page 47: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.
• AddisonTheir wisdom ... lies in a very narrow compass.
• 1913, D. H. Lawrence, ,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.
5. (obsolete) An enclosing limit; boundary; circumference.within the compass of an encircling wall
6. Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within.
• Sir J. DaviesIn two hundred years before (I speak within compass), no such commission had been executed.
7. Scope.
• Wordsworththe compass of his argument
• 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, Oxford University Press (1973), section 8: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.
• 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, 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.
8. (obsolete) A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.
• Bible, 2 Kings iii. 9They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.
• ShakespeareThis day I breathed first; time is come round,
  And where I did begin, there shall I end;
  My life is run his compass.

Synonyms

• (magnetic direction finder) magnetic compass
• (device used to draw circular curves) pair of compasses

Hyponyms

• (pair of compasses) beam compass

Derived terms

Verb

1. To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.
• 1610, , by William Shakespeare, act 5 scene 1Now all the blessingsOf a glad father compass thee about!
2. To go about or round entirely; to traverse.
3. (dated) To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.
• 1763, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilius; or, an essay on education, translated by M. Nugent, page 117:... they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.
• 1816, Catholicon: or, the Christian Philosopher, volume 3, from July to December 1816, page 56:... to settle the end of our action or disputation; and then to take fit and effectual means to compass that end.
• 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:... and was an artful flatterer, when that was necessary to compass his end, in which generally he was successful.
• 1921 November 23, The New Republic, volume 28, number 364, page 2: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).
• 1600, The Arraignment and Judgement of Captain Thomas Lee, published in 1809, by R. Bagshaw, in Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials, volume 1, page 1403–04:That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion ...
• 1794 November 1, Speech of Mr. Erskine in Behalf of Hardy, published in 1884, by Chauncey Allen Goodrich, in Select British Eloquence, page 719:But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, ...
• 1915, The Wireless Age, volume 2, page 580: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.

Synonyms

• (surround) encircle, environ, surround
• (go about or around entirely) cover, traverse
• (accomplish) accomplish, achieve, attain, gain, get to, reach
• (plot (against someone)) conspire, plot, scheme

Adverb

1. (obsolete) In a circuit; round about.
• 1658, Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin (2005), ISBN 9780141023915, page 9:Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances, ...