box the compass

Idioms  

1. Make a complete turnabout or reversal, as in With a change of ownership, the editorial page boxed the compass politically, now supporting the Senator. Originally this was (and continues to be) a nautical term, meaning “repeat the 32 points of the compass in order.” In the early 1800s it began to be used figuratively.

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Example Sentences

No one, certainly not a professional historian, would dare to box the compass of Churchill's subject matter.

From Time Magazine Archive

Whenever you think you have the answer to a German problem, you have to box the compass to see how it checks with all the major forces.

From Time Magazine Archive

Know how to box the compass, read a chart, and show use of parallel rules and dividers.

From Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

To point a carronade became as needful an accomplishment as to box the compass; and he was no A.B. who did not know how to swing a cutlass.

From American Merchant Ships and Sailors by Abbot, Willis J. (Willis John)

Notwithstanding all this, as far as stable duties are concerned, I can reef, steer, and box the compass, so to speak.

From The Cruise of the Land-Yacht "Wanderer" Thirteen Hundred Miles in my Caravan by Stables, Gordon