ADJ
magnetic
VERB + COMPASS
use | check
COMPASS + VERB
show sth
My phone's compass shows me the way when I'm hiking in the forest.
COMPASS + NOUN
needle | bearing, reading | direction, point | error
PHRASES
a map and compass, the points of the compass
The hikers checked their map and compass before setting off into the forest.
noun
A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).
[H]ow many Seas to our fore-fathers impaſſable, for want of the Compaſſe?
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 pair of compasses (a device used to draw circular arcs and transfer length measurements).
to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please
The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass.
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.
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.
An enclosing limit; a boundary, a circumference.
within the compass of an encircling wall
verb
To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.
Now all the blessings Of a glad father compass thee about!
And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
To go about or round entirely; to traverse.
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; […]
[...] they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.
To plot; to scheme (against someone).
That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion [...]
But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, …
adv
In a circuit; round about.
[T]he Towne is impailed about halfe a mile compaſſe.
Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances, […]
To know, and demonstrate by reciting, the 32 points and quarter points of the magnetic compass from North or East, both clockwise and anticlockwise.
While in the school-ships the boys would be instructed in the elements of an ordinary education, in addition to being taught to row, heave the lead, box the compass, go aloft, reef
To make a circuit; to take a circuitous route to a place.
Every direction; everywhere.
[H]ow many Seas to our fore-fathers impaſſable, for want of the Compaſſe?
Wiktionary1689/1690, 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.
Wiktionarya glance at his compass would have shown him that a northerly course instead of an easterly could not be right
WiktionaryNow all the blessings Of a glad father compass thee about!
WiktionaryAnd the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
WiktionaryJack 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
Wiktionaryi Register
In some senses, compass is marked as obsolete, dated. Watch for register when choosing this word.