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Unobstructed spase; space which may be occupied by or devoted to any object; compass; extent of place, great or small; as, there is not room for a house; the table takes up too much room. Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. Luke xiv. 22. There was no room for them in the inn. Luke ii. 7.…

The card of the mariner's compass; also, a circular card with radiating lines, used in other instruments.

The compass plant. See under Compass.

On every side of, so as to encompass or encircle; around; about; as, the people atood round him; to go round the city; to wind a cable round a windlass. The serpent Error twines round human hearts. Cowper. Round about, an emphatic form for round or about. "Moses . . . set them [The elders] round about the tabernacle."…

To have compassion. [Obs.] God so wisly [i. e., truly] on my soul rue. Chaucer. Which stirred men's hearts to rue upon them. Ridley.

That which causes pity or compassion; misery; distress; a pitiful. [Obs.] It had been hard this ruth for to see. Chaucer. With wretched miseries and woeful ruth. Spenser.

es of a molding, or the like; -- so called because the workman marks, or scribe, with the compasses the line that he afterwards cuts.

- so called from its size. He made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof. 2 Chron. iv. 2.

Mariner's card, or compass.

portion only of a circle, used for measuring differences of declination too great for the compass of a micrometer. When it is used for measuring zenith distances of stars, it is called a zenith sector. Dip sector, an instrument used for measuring the dip of the horizon. -- Sector of a sphere, or Spherical sector, the…

deemed that they drew near to some country. Acts xxvii. 27. Shipman's card, the mariner's compass. [Obs.] Shak.

To wrinkle, bend, or curl; to shrivel; hence, to contract into a less extent or compass; to gather together; to become compacted. And on a broken reed he still did stay His feeble steps, which shrunk when hard thereon he lay. Spenser. I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room.…

The point of the compass equally distant from the south and the east; the southeast part or region.

The point of the compass equally from the south and the west; the southwest part or region.

To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object; as, to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder. My right hand hath spanned the heavens. Isa. xiviii. 13.

Circuit or range of action, knowledge, or influence; compass; province; employment; place of existence. To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in 't. Shak. Taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself. Hawthorne. Each in his hidden sphere of joy o…

Extent; compass. I have got a fine spread of improvable land. Addison.

ground, and having a socket joint at the top, used, instead of a tripod, for supporting a compass. -- Staff angle (Arch.), a square rod of wood standing flush with the wall on each of its sides, at the external angles of plastering, to prevent their being damaged. -- The staff of life, bread. "Bread is the staff of l…

Compressed into a narrow compass; brief; concise. Let all your precepts be succinct and clear. Roscommon. The shortest and most succinct model that ever grasped all the needs and necessities of mankind. South.

To bring or collect into a small compass; to comprise in a few words; to condense; -- usually with up. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," in few words sums up the moral of this fable. L'Estrange. He sums their virtues in himself alone. Dryden.