different between compass vs breadth

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?m?p?s, IPA^(key): /?k?m.p?s/
• Rhymes: -?mp?s

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

compass (plural compasses)

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.

   • 1890, Wilhelm Westhofen, The Forth Bridge

     a glance at his compass would have shown him that a northerly course instead of an easterly could not be right

2. A pair of compasses (a device used to draw an arc or circle).
   • 1701, Jonathan Swift, A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome, Chapter 5

     to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please

3. (music) The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
4. (obsolete) A space within limits; an area.
   • 1763, M. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), page 47:

     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.

   • 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator

     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.

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 14

     Clara thought she had never seen him look so small and mean. He was as if trying to get himself into the smallest possible compass.
5. (obsolete) An enclosing limit; a boundary, a circumference.
6. Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within.
   • c. 1610, John Davies, Historical Tracts

     In two hundred years before (I speak within compass), no such commission had been executed.

7. (archaic) scope.
   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion Book 8

     the compass of his argument

   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral, Oxford University Press (1973), section 8:

     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.

   • 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia

     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.

8. (obsolete) A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.
   • 1611, King James Version, 2 Kings iii. 9

     They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.

Synonyms

• (magnetic direction finder): magnetic compass
• (device used to draw circular curves): pair of compasses

Hyponyms

• (pair of compasses): beam compass

Derived terms

Translations

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

compass (third-person singular simple present compasses, present participle compassing, simple past and past participle compassed)

1. To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, act 5 scene 1

     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.
2. To go about or round entirely; to traverse.
3. (dated) To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.
   • 1763, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilius; or, an essay on education, translated by M. Nugent, page 117:

     [...] they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.

   • 1816, Catholicon: or, the Christian Philosopher, volume 3, from July to December 1816, page 56:

     [...] to settle the end of our action or disputation; and then to take fit and effectual means to compass that end.

   • 1921 November 23, The New Republic, volume 28, number 364, page 2:

     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.

4. (dated) To plot; to scheme (against someone).
   • 1600, The Arraignment and Judgement of Captain Thomas Lee, published in 1809, by R. Bagshaw, in Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials, volume 1, page 1403–04:

     That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion [...]

   • 1794 November 1, Speech of Mr. Erskine in Behalf of Hardy, published in 1884, by Chauncey Allen Goodrich, in Select British Eloquence, page 719:

     But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, [...]

   • 1915, The Wireless Age, volume 2, page 580:

     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.

Synonyms

• (surround): encircle, environ, surround
• (go about or around entirely): cover, traverse
• (accomplish): accomplish, achieve, attain, gain, get to, reach
• (plot (against someone)): conspire, plot, scheme

Translations

Adverb

compass (comparative more compass, superlative most compass)

1. (obsolete) In a circuit; round about.
   • 1658, Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial,^[1] Penguin (2005), ?ISBN, page 9:

     Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances, […]

References

• compass in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• compass in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Middle English

Noun

compass

1. Alternative form of compas

English

Etymology

From Middle English breedthe, bredethe, alteration (due to nouns ending in -th: length, strength, wrength, etc.) of Middle English brede ("breadth"; see bread). Equivalent to broad +? -th. Cognate with Scots bredth (“breadth”), Saterland Frisian Bratte (“breadth”), West Frisian breedte (“breadth”), Dutch breedte (“breadth”), German Low German Breddte, Breddt (“breadth”), German Breite (“breadth”), Danish bredde (“breadth”), Swedish bredd (“breadth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??d?/, /b??t?/, /b???/
• Rhymes: -?d?

Noun

breadth (countable and uncountable, plural breadths)

1. The extent or measure of how broad or wide something is.
2. A piece of fabric of standard width.
3. Scope or range, especially of knowledge or skill.
4. (art) A style in painting in which details are strictly subordinated to the harmony of the whole composition.
5. (graph theory) The length of the longest path between two vertices in a graph.

Synonyms

• (extent or measure of how broad something is): width
• (piece of fabric of standard width):
• (scope or range): extent, range, scope, size

Derived terms

Translations