mariner's compass

American  

noun

1. a compass used for navigational purposes, consisting of a pivoted compass card in a gimbal-mounted, nonferrous metal bowl.

2. (initial capital letter) compass.

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Etymology

Origin of mariner's compass

First recorded in 1620–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mariner's compass

The mariner's compass invented, or improved by Givia, of Naples.

From On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments by William Gilbert

A mariner's compass is not "regulated," when the needle is made to move this way and that, at the will of an operator, without reference to the north pole.

From A Letter to Grover Cleveland On His False Inaugural Address, The Usurpations and Crimes of Lawmakers and Judges, and the Consequent Poverty, Ignorance, and Servitude Of The People by Lysander Spooner

Hence a wheel thus arranged has all the attributes which we need for a mariner's compass.

From Marvels of Scientific Invention An Interesting Account in Non-technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and many other recent Discoveries of Science by Thomas W. Corbin

It is sometimes said that he helped to introduce many important inventions into Europe and one even finds his name connected with the mariner's compass and with gunpowder.

From The Thirteenth Greatest of Centuries by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

There is nothing in the history of ancient navigation that is analogous to the invention of the mariner’s compass or of the steam-engine.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 4 "Grasshopper" to "Greek Language" by Various

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