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An instrument for describing circles, measuring figures, etc., consisting of two, or (rarely) more, pointed branches, or legs, usually joined at the top by a rivet on which they move.

Curved; bent; as, compassing timbers.

r misfortunes of another; pity; commiseration. Womanly igenuity set to work by womanly compassion. Macaulay.

Deserving compassion or pity; pitiable. [R.] Barrow.

iful. There never was any heart truly great and generous, that was not also tender and compassionate. South.

In a compassionate manner; mercifully. Clarendon.

The quality or state of being compassionate.

Having no compass. Knowles.

Passant in opposite directions; -- said of two animals.

Free from warmth of passion or feeling.

Freedom from passion; an undisturbed state; apathy. Sir W. Temple.

Free from passion; not warped, prejudiced, swerved, or carried away by passion or feeling; judicial; calm; composed. Wise and dispassionate men. Clarendon.

Free from passion; dispassionate. [R.] "Dispassioned men." Donne.

To move with passion; to affect strongly. See Impassion. [Obs.] Those sights empassion me full near. Spenser.

Strongly affected. [Obs.] The Briton Prince was sore empassionate. Spenser.

In passing; in the course of any procedure; -- said specif. (Chess),

go round so as to surround closely; to encircle; to inclose; to environ; as, a ring encompasses the finger; an army encompasses a city; a voyage encompassing the world. Shak. A question may be encompassed with difficulty. C. J. Smith. The love of all thy sons encompass thee. Tennyson.

The act of surrounding, or the state of being surrounded; circumvention. By this encompassment and drift of question. Shak.

To pass by or along; to pass over. [Obs.] Spenser.

Incapable of being passed; not admitting a passage; as, an impassable road, mountain, or gulf. Milton. -- Im*pass"a*ble*ness, n. -- Im*pass"a*bly, adv.