outcompass

English

Etymology

out- +‎ compass

Verb

outcompass (third-person singular simple present outcompasses, present participle outcompassing, simple past and past participle outcompassed)

1. (transitive) To exceed the compass or limits of.
   • 1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning:

     "It is manifest that there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or out-compass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of knowledge, which, be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling."

Synonyms

• exceed, surpass, transcend; see also Thesaurus:transcend

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “outcompass”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• compass out