compass

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: kŭmʹpəs, IPA^(key): /ˈkʌmpəs/

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• Rhymes: -ʌmpəs
• Hyphenation: com‧pass

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.

compass (plural compasses)

Compass render

1. A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).
   • 1625, [Samuel] Purchas, “Of the Improvement of Nauigation in Later Times, […]”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 1st part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], OCLC 960103045, 2nd book, § I, page 2:

     [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.

   • 1890, Wilhelm Westhofen, The Forth Bridge

     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 an arc or circle).
   • 1701, Jonathan Swift, A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome, Chapter 5

     to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please

3. (music) The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
   • 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 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

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

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

   • 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator

     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.

   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Chapter 14”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], OCLC 855945:

     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.

   • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 161:

     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

   • 1624, John Smith, “The Present Estate of New-Plimoth”, in John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: […], London: […] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Michael Sparkes, OCLC 1049014009, book 6; republished as The Generall Historie of Virginia, [...], London: […] I[ohn] D[awson] and I[ohn] H[aviland] for Edward Blackmore, 1632, OCLC 55196040, page 247:

     [T]he Towne is impailed about halfe a mile compaſſe.

6. Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within.
   • c. 1610, John Davies, Historical Tracts

     In two hundred years before (I speak within compass), no such commission had been executed.

7. (archaic) Scope.
   • 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 1108654590:

     the 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, Marginalia

     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) Range, reach.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:

     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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Kings iii:9:

     They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.

   • 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 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:

     This day I breathed first; time is come round, / And where I did begin, there shall I end; / My life is run his compass.

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

• (pair of compasses): beam compass

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.

compass (third-person singular simple present compasses, present participle compassing, simple past and past participle compassed)

1. To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.
   • 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 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 2:13:

     And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

   • 1899, Martha Frye Boggs, Jack Crews, page 237:

     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.
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.

• (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

compass (comparative more compass, superlative most compass)

1. (obsolete) In a circuit; round about.
   • 1658, Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial‎, Penguin, published 2005, →ISBN, page 9:

     Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances, […]

• compass in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• compass in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

compass

1. Alternative form of compas