compass card

American  

noun

Navigation.

1. 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.

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compass card British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of compass card

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

The compass card consists of a paper ring, on which the "points" and degrees are engraved in the ordinary way, and is kept circular by a light ring of aluminium.

From Project Gutenberg

Three wooden instruments with his compass card exist in private and public collections.

From Project Gutenberg

The float has mounted upon it a compass card much like that of the ordinary magnetic instrument, and the sailor reads it in precisely the same way.

From Project Gutenberg

She came aft to where I was standing, and, having looked at the compass card, gazed round her.

From Project Gutenberg

The bos'un did not think so, and casting an eye aloft at the canvas now beginning to fill, and then at the compass card, prepared to air his theory of the malady.

From Project Gutenberg