mariner's compass
Americannoun
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a compass used for navigational purposes, consisting of a pivoted compass card in a gimbal-mounted, nonferrous metal bowl.
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(initial capital letter) compass.
Etymology
Origin of mariner's compass
First recorded in 1620–30
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 electrometer remains as indifferent to the solicitations of the tables as does the mariner's compass.
From Mysterious Psychic Forces An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants by Flammarion, Camille
Why, they found out all about gunpowder and printing and the mariner’s compass, when Europe was sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance.
From Bert Wilson, Wireless Operator by Duffield, J. W.
Gimbal, gim′bal, n. a contrivance for suspending the mariner's compass, so as to keep it always horizontal.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
Magnetism was encircling the earth with its currents long before the invention of the mariner's compass which reveals them to us.
From Mysterious Psychic Forces An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants by Flammarion, Camille
This great event was preceded by the general utilization in Europe of the polarity of the magnetic Portuguese exploration—Prince Henry the Navigator. needle in the construction of the mariner’s compass.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 6 "Geodesy" to "Geometry" by Various
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.
