compass card

American

noun

Navigation.

a circular card with magnets attached to its underside, the face divided on its rim into points of the compass, degrees clockwise from north, or both, and floating or suspended from a pivot so as to rotate freely.

compass card British

noun

a compass in the form of a card that rotates so that "0°" or "North" points to magnetic north

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of compass card

First recorded in 1870–75

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.

See Examples For:

compass card

I actually prefer trying to hold a number on its screen rather than trying to keep a compass card in alignment.

From Time Magazine Archive

But they never look at the instrument board on a line run without seeing on the compass card a sharp reminder of a TWA deficiency: all its routes run east and west.

From Time Magazine Archive

The engraved compass card is signed by Nathaniel Hurd, goldsmith, silversmith, and engraver of Boston.

From Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers by Bedini, Silvio A.

An indicator showing the direction the sight vane points can be read upon the compass card on the glass dial.

From Lectures in Navigation by Draper, Ernest Gallaudet

The instrument is made of gumwood and has a paper compass card; it is 13-1/4 in. long and has a diameter of 5-3/4 in.

From Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers by Bedini, Silvio A.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023