compass

Etymology 1

From Middle English compas (“a circle, circuit, limit, form, a mathematical instrument”), from Old French compas, from Medieval Latin compassus (“a circle, a circuit”), from Latin com- (“together”) + passus (“a pace, step, later a pass, way, route”); see pass, pace.

noun

1. A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).
   1689/1690, John Locke, On improvement of understanding He that … first discovered the use of the compass … did more for the propagation of knowledge … than those who built workhouses.
   a glance at his compass would have shown him that a northerly course instead of an easterly could not be right 1890, Wilhelm Westhofen, The Forth Bridge
2. A pair of compasses (a device used to draw an arc or circle).
   to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please 1701, Jonathan Swift, chapter 5, in A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome
3. (music) The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
4. (obsolete) A space within limits; an area.
   In going up the Missisippi [sic], we meet with nothing remarkable before we come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the river takes a large compass. 1763, M. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, PG, page 47
   Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass. 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator
   Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass. 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 161
5. (obsolete) An enclosing limit; a boundary, a circumference.
   within the compass of an encircling wall
6. Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within.
   In two hundred years before (I speak within compass), no such commission had been executed. c. 1610, John Davies, Historical Tracts
7. (archaic) Scope.
   There is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding. 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, Oxford University Press, published 1973, section 8
   How very commonly we hear it remarked that such and such thoughts are beyond the compass of words! I do not believe that any thought, properly so called, is out of the reach of language. 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia
8. (obsolete) Range, reach.
9. (obsolete) A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.

Etymology 2

From Middle English compassen (“to go around, make a circuit, draw a circle, contrive, intend”), from Old French compasser; from the noun; see compass as a noun.

verb

1. To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.
   Jack was called plucky, and he was, but it took all the strength of will that the slim, resolute engineer possessed, to hold him to his purpose, when he faced about and surveyed the unimpassive faces which compassed him. 1899, Martha Frye Boggs, Jack Crews, page 237
2. To go about or round entirely; to traverse.
3. (dated) To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.
   […] tho' theſe ſeem'd to be very unfit Inſtruments for compaſſing of that great Deſign for which they were then employ'd, becauſe of their Inability and Uncapacity in performing the Work ſo very great and important; […] 1720, John Shaw, “Of Religion”, in The Fundamental Doctrines of the Church of England,[…], volume I, London: […] George Strahan,[…] William Mears,[…], page 36
   … they never find ways sufficient to compass that end. 1763, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by M. Nugent, Emilius; or, an essay on education, page 117
   … to settle the end of our action or disputation; and then to take fit and effectual means to compass that end. 1816, Catholicon: or, the Christian Philosopher, volume 3, July to December 1816, page 56
   … and was an artful flatterer, when that was necessary to compass his end, in which generally he was successful. 1857, Gilbert Burnet, Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time: from the Restoration of King Charles the Second to the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht in the Reign of Queen Anne, page 657
   The immediate problem is how to compass that end: by the seizure of territory or by the cultivation of the goodwill of the people whose business she seeks. November 23 1921, The New Republic, volume 28, number 364, page 2
4. (dated) To plot; to scheme (against someone).
   That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion … 1600, R. Bagshaw, “The Arraignment and Judgement of Captain Thomas Lee”, in Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials, volume 1, published 1809, pages 1403–04
   But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, … 1794 November 1, Speech of Mr. Erskine in Behalf of Hardy, published in 1884, by Chauncey Allen Goodrich, in Select British Eloquence, page 719
   The Bavarian felt a mad wave of desire for her sweep over him. What scheme wouldn't he compass to mould that girl to his wishes. 1915, The Wireless Age, volume 2, page 580

adv

1. (obsolete) In a circuit; round about.
   Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances, […] 1658, Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin, published 2005, page 9