noun
compass in the form of a card that rotates so that 0 degrees or North points to magnetic north
• Syn: ↑compass card
• Hypernyms: ↑magnetic compass
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noun : a compass used in navigation consisting of two or more parallel magnetic needles or bundles of needles permanently attached to a compass card that is delicately pivoted and enclosed in a glass-covered box or bowl set in gimbals in the binnacle and that is read with reference to the lubber line on the front of the bowl
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1. a compass used for navigational purposes, consisting of a pivoted compass card in a gimbal-mounted, nonferrous metal bowl.
2. (cap.) Astron. compass (def. 8a).
[1620-30]
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mariner's compass,
a sensitive, accurate compass on a ship or boat, supported in a box or bowl on gimbals, placed for the helmsman to steer by.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.