Search the Dictionary

A surveying instrument, for taking horizontal angles and bearings; a surveyor's compass. It consists of a compass whose needle plays over a circle graduated to 360º, and of a horizontal brass bar at the ends of which are standards with narrow slits for sighting, supported on a tripod by a ball and socket joint.…

To encompass with a wall. Shak.

Mild in temper and disposition; merciful; compassionate. Shak. -- Clem"ent*ly, adv.

To embrace, hence; to encompass. O . . . that Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself. Shak.

To come or gather around; to inclose; to encompass; to confine. The depth closed me round about. Jonah ii. 5. But now thou dost thyself immure and close In some one corner of a feeble heart. Herbert. A closed sea, a sea within the jurisdiction of some particular nation, which controls its navigation.…

To sail by or near; to follow the coast line of. Nearchus, . . . not knowing the compass, was fain to coast that shore. Sir T. Browne.

Encompassed with a coma, or bushy appearance, like hair; hairy.

act of commiserating; sorrow for the wants, afflictions, or distresses of another; pity; compassion. And pluck commiseration of his state From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint. Shak.

Close union or connection of parts; manner of joining; construction. [Obs.] "With comely compass and compacture strong." Spenser.

Containing the substance oe general principles of a subject or work in a narrow compass; abridged; summarized. More compendious and exeditious ways. Woodward. Three things be required in the oration of a man having authority -- that it be compendious, sententious, and delectable. Sir T. Elyot.

An iron plate or magnet placed near the compass on iron vessels to neutralize the effect of the ship's attraction on the needle.

r; to construct; to build. [Obs.] Before that Merlin died, he did intend A brazen wall in compass to compile. Spenser.

To press or squeeze together; to force into a narrower compass; to reduce the volume of by pressure; to compact; to condense; as, to compress air or water. Events of centuries . . . compressed within the compass of a single life. D. Webster. The same strength of expression, though more compressed, runs through his hist…

Capable of being pressed together or forced into a narrower compass, as an elastic or spongy substance.

act or process of removing the dress of ore and of reducing the valuable part to smaller compass, as by currents of air or water.

To make more close, compact, or dense; to compress or concentrate into a smaller compass; to consolidate; to abridge; to epitomize. In what shape they choose, Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure. Milton. The secret course pursued at Brussels and at Madrid may be condensed into the usual formula, dissimulation, proc…

s hand Keep the wild flood confined! let order die! Shak. He is to confine himself to the compass of numbers and the slavery of rhyme. Dryden. To be confined, to be in childbed.

To crowd or cram into a narrow compass; to press together or condense. [Obs.] Of cold the property is to condense and constipate. Bacon.

Act of crowding anything into a less compass, or the state of being crowded or pressed together; condensation. [Obs.] Fullness of matter, or a pretty close constipation . . . of its particles. Boyle.

To bring into a narrow compass; to compress. How the strait stays the slender waist constrain. Gay.