ppl. a. [f. COMPASS v.1 & sb.1 + -ED.]

1

  † 1.  Contrived, cunningly or artfully devised. Obs.

2

c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, I. ix. (1544), 18 a. His compassed, sleighty, questions. Ibid., II. xxix. 66. His compassed falsenes and treason.

3

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 161. Alter confession made by the Sarazen of all hys compassed treason.

4

  † b.  ? Cunning, or ? provided with compasses.

5

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 178. I contreued toles, Of carpentrie, of kerueres and compassed masouns.

6

  2.  Surrounded, encircled, etc.; see the vb.

7

1547.  J. Harrison, Exhort. Scottes, 208. Neighbors … compassed within one sea.

8

1786.  Cowper, Gratitude, 49. Compassed about with the goods … of leisure … I indulge my poetical moods.

9

1859.  Hawthorne, Marb. Faun, xxxviii. When the compassed splendour of the actual interior [of the cathedral] glowed before her eyes.

10

  b.  fig. Circumscribed. [F. compassé.]

11

1888.  Symonds, Ben Jonson, vi. 163. His boisterous self-assertion, etc. … were sufficient to overpower the ceremonious and compassed Scotch laird [Drummond of Hawthornden]. Ibid. (1890), Ess., II. 261. There is nothing small or mean or compassed in that art.

12

  † 3.  Rounded, curved, circular, arched. Obs.

13

1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. Defin. Two compassed lines and one right lyne. Ibid., I. iii. Set one foote of the compasse in the verye point of the angle, and with the other fote draw a compassed arch.

14

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, II. cii. 288. Golden Saxifrage … groweth … with compassed leaues.

15

1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. vi. [vii.] (Arb.), 92. The circumflex, or compast accent.

16

1655.  W. F., Meteors, III. 73. The Circle called Halon … seen about the Sunne … is called of the Greeks a compassed plat.

17

1681.  Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xxii. (1687), 146. A small compassed Hook.

18

  b.  Compassed roof, window; see COMPASS sb.1 D.

19

1538.  Leland, Itin. (1745), I. 105. Mervelus fair cumpacid Windoes.

20

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 120. She came to him th’other day into the compast window.

21

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 167 (D.). A compast roofe.

22

1825.  Fosbrooke, Encycl. Antiq., vii. 150/2. The Compassed Windows were round.

23

  Hence † Compassedly adv., in a curved line; † Compassedness, curvedness, curvature.

24

1551.  Recorde, Castle Knowl. (1556), 136. Bothe descendeth compassedlye vnto the contrarye poynte to them againe.

25

1649.  Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653), 208. Fault may be in the roughness and ill compassedness of the Share.

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