pair of compasses
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of pair of compasses
First recorded in 1545–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The most common type of apotropaic mark is the daisy wheel, or hexafoil, which is often a six-petal “flower” drawn with a pair of compasses.
From Fox News
The public body Historic Britain says they are often carved into the shape of a daisy wheel, which looks like a six petal “flower” drawn with a pair of compasses in a single endless line that was supposed to confuse and entrap wicked spirits.
From Time
“He would draw out of a little drawer under his table, and show them a pair of compasses with one of the legs broken; and then, for his ruler, he used a sheet of paper folded double.”
From Washington Post
In no time at all he’d devised the world’s first saw and the first pair of compasses.
From Salon
In Book III of his treatise De Architectura, Vitruvius wrote: For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centered at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom.
From Slate
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
