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A case or box placed near the helmsman, containing the compass of a ship, and a light to show it at night. Totten.

Emitting, or appearing to emit, blood or sap, etc.; also, expressing anguish or compassion.

ithin which something is limited or restrained; limit; confine; extent; boundary. He hath compassed the waters with bounds. Job xxvi. 10. On earth's remotest bounds. Campbell. And mete the bounds of hate and love. Tennyson. To keep within bounds, not to exceed or pass beyond assigned limits; to act with propriety or di…

Bow-compasses carrying a drawing pen. See Bow-compass.

Bow-compasses, one leg of which carries a pencil.

The seat of pity or kindness. Hence: Tenderness; compassion. "Thou thing of no bowels." Shak. Bloody Bonner, that corpulent tyrant, full (as one said) of guts, and empty of bowels. Fuller.

), to turn the head of a vessel either way by bracing the headyards aback. -- To box the compass (Naut.), to name the thirty-two points of the compass in their order.

To fail in musical quality; as, a singer's voice breaks when it is strained beyond its compass and a tone or note is not completed, but degenerates into an unmusical sound instead. Also, to change in tone, as a boy's voice at puberty.

Fig.: Capacity or compass of mind. Burke. Caliber compasses. See Calipers. -- Caliber rule, a gunner's calipers, an instrument having two scales arranged to determine a ball's weight from its diameter, and conversely. -- A ship's caliber, the weight of her armament.

An instrument, usually resembling a pair of dividers or compasses with curved legs, for measuring the diameter or thickness of bodies, as of work shaped in a lathe or planer, timber, masts, shot, etc.; or the bore of firearms, tubes, etc.; -- called also caliper compasses, or caliber compasses. Caliper square, a draugh…

A paper on which the points of the compass are marked; the dial or face of the mariner's compass. All the quartere that they know I' the shipman's card. Shak.

called ordinal numbers. -- Cardinal points (a) (Geol.) The four principal points of the compass, or intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the prime vertical circle, north, south east, and west. (b) (Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir. -- Cardinal signs (Astron.) Aries, Lidr…

That which encompasses or incloses; an inclosure. "Within the cincture of one wall." Bacon.

To make a circle around; to encompass. [Obs.] Bailey.

Compass; circuit; inclosure. In the circle of this forest. Shak.

nce of, or distance round, any space; the measure of a line round an area. The circuit or compass of Ireland is 1,800 miles. J. Stow.

The act of surrounding or encompassing. Sir T. Browne.

Surrounding; inclosing or being on all sides; encompassing. "The circumambient heaven." J. Armstrong.

The line that goes round or encompasses a circular figure; a periphery. Millon.

Pertaining to the circumference; encompassing; encircling; circuitous. Parkhurst.