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Curved; bent; as, compassing timbers.

Encompassing on all sides; circumfused; investing. "Ambient air." Milton. "Ambient clouds." Pope.

On all sides of; encircling; encompassing; so as to make the circuit of; about. A lambent flame arose, which gently spread Around his brows. Dryden.

A small band or fillet; any little band or flat molding, compassing a column, like a ring. Gwilt.

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

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

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

To purpose; to intend; to imagine; to plot. Compassing and imagining the death of the king are synonymous terms; compassing signifying the purpose or design of the mind or will, and not, as in common speech, the carrying such design to effect. Blackstone.

se; 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.

flake of snow, tallow, or fish. "Lottle flakes of scurf." Addison. Great flakes of ice encompassing our boat. Evelyn.

The limit or exterior line encompassing a place; a boundary; a confine; limit of jurisdiction or authority; -- often in the plural; as, the precincts of a state. "The precincts of light." Milton.

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.

An encompassing.