box the compass
IdiomsExample Sentences
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Whenever you think you have the answer to a German problem, you have to box the compass to see how it checks with all the major forces.
From Time Magazine Archive
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No one, certainly not a professional historian, would dare to box the compass of Churchill's subject matter.
From Time Magazine Archive
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You will, thus, learn something of your future profession; and be able to pull a rope and box the compass before the time comes for you to join the training ship.”
From Bob Strong's Holidays Adrift in the Channel by Greene, John B.
Easterns do not "box the compass" after our fashion: with them each point has its own name, generally derived from some prominent star on the horizon.
From First Footsteps in East Africa by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Our course on this river, Jean Lafitte, will box the compass, indeed box an entire box of compasses, for no river is more winding.
From The Lady and the Pirate Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive by Mathes, Harry A.
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.