Meaning of compass in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Verb
    1. Definitions
  3. Noun
    1. Etymology
    2. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    /ˈkəmpəs/

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  1. Verb

    compass

    Definitions

    1. bring about

    Examples

    • « accomplish »
    • « This writer attempts more than his talents can compass »

    Derived terms

  2. 2. travel around, either by plane or ship

    Examples

    • « We compassed the earth »

    Derived terms

  3. 3. get the meaning of something

    Examples

    • « Do you comprehend the meaning of this letter? »

    Derived terms

  4. Noun

    compass

    Etymology

    Middle English: from Old French compas (noun), compasser (verb), based on Latin com-‘together’ + passus‘a step or pace’. Several senses (‘measure’, ‘artifice’, ‘circumscribed area’, and ‘pair of compasses’) which appeared in Middle English are also found in Old French, but their development and origin are uncertain. The transference of sense to the magnetic compass is held to have occurred in the related Italian word compasso, from the circular shape of the compass box

    Definitions

    1. navigational instrument for finding directions
  5. 2. an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control: "the range of a supersonic jet"

    Examples

    • « the ambit of municipal legislation »
    • « within the compass of this article »
    • « within the scope of an investigation »
    • « outside the reach of the law »
    • « in t »

    Derived terms

  6. 3. the limit of capability

    Examples

    • « within the compass of education »

    Derived terms

  7. 4. drafting instrument used for drawing circles

Famous quotes

  • « To be completely woman you need a master, and in him a compass for your life. You need a man you can look up to and respect. If you dethrone him it's no wonder that you are discontented, and discontented women are not loved for long. »
    Marlene Dietrich
  • « Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. »
    Saint Augustine
  • « There are no points of the compass on the chart of true patriotism. »
    Robert Charles Winthrop
  • « What ever our wandering our happiness will always be found within a narrow compass, and in the middle of the objects more immediately within our reach. »
    Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
  • « I think if you look at people, whether in business or government, who haven't had any moral compass, who've just changed to say whatever they thought the popular thing was, in the end they're losers. »
    Michael Bloomberg

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