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.
Figure 36.—Unsigned wooden surveying compass, with an interesting example of a mariner's compass card.
From Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers by Bedini, Silvio A.
In the top right corner, spanned by a compass, was a scale of leagues, while in the left was a representation of the mariner's compass.
From The Quest of the 'Golden Hope' A Seventeenth Century Story of Adventure by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
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.
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 Corbin, Thomas W.
It is here that Flavio Gioja dwelt, by whom, as is boasted at Amalfi, the mariner's compass was given to the world.
From Naples Past and Present by Norway, Arthur H.
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.
