Verb

(es)

To surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.

* 1610 , , by (William Shakespeare), act 5 scene 1

Now all the blessings

Of a glad father compass thee about!

To go about or round entirely; to traverse.

(dated) To accomplish; to reach; to achieve; to obtain.

* 1763 , Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emilius; or, an essay on education , translated by M. Nugent, page 117:

[...] they never find ways sufficient to compass that end.

* 1816 , Catholicon: or, the Christian Philosopher , volume 3, from July to December 1816, page 56:

[...] to settle the end of our action or disputation; and then to take fit and effectual means to compass that end.

* 1857 , Gilbert Burnet, Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time: from the Restoration of King Charles the Second to the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht in the Reign of Queen Anne , page 657:

[...] and was an artful flatterer, when that was necessary to compass his end, in which generally he was successful.

* 1921 November 23, The New Republic , volume 28, number 364, page 2:

The immediate problem is how to compass that end: by the seizure of territory or by the cultivation of the goodwill of the people whose business she seeks.

(dated) To plot; to scheme (against someone).

* 1600', ''The Arraignment and Judgement of Captain Thomas Lee'', published in '''1809 , by R. Bagshaw, in ''Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials , volume 1, page 1403–04:

That he plotted and compassed to raise Sedition and Rebellion [...]

* 1794' November 1, ''Speech of Mr. Erskine in Behalf of Hardy'', published in '''1884 , by Chauncey Allen Goodrich, in ''Select British Eloquence , page 719:

But it went beyond it by the loose construction of compassing to depose the King, [...]

* 1915 , The Wireless Age , volume 2, page 580:

The Bavarian felt a mad wave of desire for her sweep over him. What scheme wouldn't he compass to mould that girl to his wishes.

Verb

(en verb)

(lb) To hold inside.

*

At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria,

(lb) To include as a part.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-21, volume=411, issue=8884, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Subtle effects , passage=Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.}}

(lb) To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.

* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

The king's person contains the unruly people from evil occasions.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.

*

Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.

To have as an element.

To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.

* Bible, vii. 9.

But if they can not contain , let them marry.