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Knot vs Compass - What's the difference?

knot | compass | Related terms |

Knot is a related term of compass.


As verbs the difference between knot and compass

is that knot is (knyta) while compass is to surround; to encircle; to environ; to stretch round.

As a noun compass is

a magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).

As an adverb compass is

(obsolete) in a circuit; round about.

knot

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) cnotta, from (etyl) , compare Latin nodus and its Romance successors.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.
    • Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
  • (of hair, etc) A tangled clump.
    • The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
  • A maze-like pattern.
  • * Milton
    • Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art / In beds and curious knots , but nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.
  • (mathematics) A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).
    • A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.
        A knot in its original sense can be modeled as a mathematical knot''' (or link) as follows: if the knot is made with a single piece of rope, then abstract the shape of that rope and then extend the working end to merge it with the standing end, yielding a mathematical '''knot'''. If the knot is attached to a metal ring, then that metal ring can be modeled as a trivial '''knot''' and the pair of '''knots''' become a link. If more than one mathematical ' knot (or link) can be thus obtained, then the simplest one (avoiding detours) is probably the one which one would want.
  • A difficult situation.
    • I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
  • * South
    • A man shall be perplexed with knots , and problems of business, and contrary affairs.
  • The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.
    • When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots , since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.
  • Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.
    • Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
  • A protuberant joint in a plant.
  • Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.
  • * Tennyson
    • With lips serenely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat.
  • The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.
    • the knot of the tale
  • (engineering) A node.
  • A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
  • A group of people or things.
  • * Shakespeare
    • his ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • As they sat together in small, separate knots , they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief.
  • * 1968, Bryce Walton, Harpoon Gunner , Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, (1968), page 20,
    • He pushed through knots of whalemen grouped with their families and friends, and surrounded by piles of luggage.
  • A bond of union; a connection; a tie.
  • * Shakespeare
    • with nuptial knot
  • * Bishop Hall
    • ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed
    Related terms
    * get knotted * Gordian knot * granny knot * knot theory * knotty * red knot * reef knot * slipknot * unknot * Windsor knot

    Verb

    (knott)
  • To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.
    • We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.
  • * Tennyson
    • as tight as I could knot the noose
  • To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc.
    • She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.
  • To unite closely; to knit together.
    • (Francis Bacon)
  • (obsolete, rare) To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.
    • Synonyms
    * (form into a knot) bind, tie * (form wrinkles in forehead) knit
    Antonyms
    * (form into a knot) loosen, unbind, unknot, untie

    See also

    * * braid * bruise * hickey * knit * loop * plait * tangle * tie * weave

    Etymology 2

    From the practice of counting the number of knots in the log-line (as it plays out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every 1/120th of a mile.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour.
    • Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots .
  • (slang) A nautical mile (incorrectly)
    • See also
    *

    Etymology 3

    Supposed to be derived from the name of (King Canute), with whom the bird was a favourite article of food. See the species epithet canutus .

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • One of a variety of shore birds; the red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or ).

    • See also

    * (Red Knot)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    compass

    English

    (wikipedia compass)

    Noun

    (es)
  • A magnetic or electronic device used to determine the cardinal directions (usually magnetic or true north).
  • * John Locke
    • He that first discovered the use of the compass did more for the supplying and increase of useful commodities than those who built workhouses.
  • A pair of compasses (a device used to draw an arc or circle).
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • to fix one foot of their compass wherever they please
  • (music) The range of notes of a musical instrument or voice.
  • * Shakespeare
    • You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass .
  • (obsolete) A space within limits; area.
  • * 1763 , M. Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisiana (PG), page 47:
    • In going up the Missisippi [sic] , we meet with nothing remarkable before we come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the river takes a large compass .
  • * Addison
    • Their wisdom lies in a very narrow compass .
  • * 1913 ,
    • Clara thought she had never seen him look so small and mean. He was as if trying to get himself into the smallest possible compass .
  • (obsolete) An enclosing limit; boundary; circumference.
    • within the compass of an encircling wall
  • Moderate bounds, limits of truth; moderation; due limits; used with within .
  • * Sir J. Davies
    • In two hundred years before (I speak within compass ), no such commission had been executed.
  • Scope.
  • * Wordsworth
    • the compass of his argument
  • * 1748 , David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral , Oxford University Press (1973), section 8:
    • There is a truth and falsehood in all propositions on this subject, and a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding.
  • * 1844 , (Edgar Allan Poe),
    • How very commonly we hear it remarked that such and such thoughts are beyond the compass of words! I do not believe that any thought, properly so called, is out of the reach of language.
  • (obsolete) A passing round; circuit; circuitous course.
  • * Bible, 2 Kings iii. 9
    • They fetched a compass of seven days' journey.
  • * Shakespeare
    • This day I breathed first; time is come round, / And where I did begin, there shall I end; / My life is run his compass .

    Synonyms

    * (magnetic direction finder) magnetic compass * (device used to draw circular curves) pair of compasses

    Hyponyms

    * (pair of compasses) beam compass

    Derived terms

    * beam compass * bow compass * compass card * compass error * compass needle * compass plant * compass point * compass rose * compass swing * gyrocompass * magnetic compass * mariner's compass * moral compass * pair of compasses * radio compass * telltale compass (pair of compasses) * beam compass

    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.

    Quotations

    * *: And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

    Synonyms

    * (surround) encircle, environ, surround * (go about or around entirely) cover, traverse * (accomplish) accomplish, achieve, attain, gain, get to, reach * conspire, plot, scheme

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) In a circuit; round about.
  • * 1658 , (w), Urne-Burial , Penguin (2005), ISBN 9780141023915, page 9:
    • Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards compasse were digged up coals and incinerated substances,

    References

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