Noun

(en noun)

A visual representation of an area, whether real or imaginary.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March–April

, author= , title=Pixels or Perish , volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine= citation , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps , diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

(mathematics)   A function.

The discrete topology is always continuous, therefore functions with discrete domains are always maps.

(topology)   A continuous function.

A diagram of components of an item.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April

, author= , title=Well-connected Brains , volume=100, issue=2, page=171 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Creating a complete map of the human connectome would therefore be a monumental milestone but not the end of the journey to understanding how our brains work.}}

The butterfly .

(UK, old-fashioned)   Someone's face.

* {{quote-book

, year=1960 , author= , title=(Jeeves in the Offing) , section=chapter X , passage=And as the eye rested on him, he too filled me with pity and terror, for his map was flushed and his manner distraught. He looked like Jack Dempsey at the conclusion of his first conference with Gene Tunney, the occasion, if you remember, when he forgot to duck.}}

(board games, computer games)   A predefined and confined imaginary area where a game session takes place.

"I don't want to play this map again!"

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 .