compass
noun
an instrument for determining directions, as by means of a freely rotating magnetized needle that indicates magnetic north.
were compassing
-
past progressiveof compass.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
Being to a certain extent soldiers, their business was to kill something and they were compassing the destruction of their present enemy by drinking wine and eating not sea-urchins but cold boiled artichokes.
From Diversions in Sicily by Henry Festing Jones
They were compassing bulls! they were besetting bulls! they were strong Bashan bulls!
From An English Garner Critical Essays & Literary Fragments by Professor Thomas Seccombe Arber
See how it appeared to us at several views as we were compassing the east and south-east and south of it, to get to the road, on the south-west of it, and the road itself.
From A Voyage to New Holland by William Dampier
