North star
[ME. north sterre = MDu. noirdstern, Du. noordster, G. nordstern, Da. -stjerne, Sw. -stjerna.]
The Pole-star.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. ii. (Bodl. MS.), The moste norþe sterre, the whyche norþe sterre we clepeþ schyppeman-sterre. 1530 Palsgr. 248/2 Northe starre, pol articque. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 96 By findinge the height of the Northe starre. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 258 If her breath were as terrible as [her] terminations,..she would infect to the north starre. 1625 Purchas Pilgrims I. ii. ii. 34 When they had sayled past the Equinoctiall Line, they lost the sight of the North starre. 1661 Boyle Style of Script. (1675) 61 The North star..doth better guide the pilot, than ev'n the moon herself. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 605 Our..Guide, who..steer'd himself by the Pole, or North Star. 1779 Johnson L.P., Milton (1868) 66 The pensive man..outwatches the North Star, to discover the habitation of separate souls. c 1808 Surtees in G. Taylor Mem. R.S. (Surtees) 244 The witching spell..That lur'd the north star from the sky. 1848 Lowell Biglow P. Ser. i. ix, He..axed ef I could pint The North Star out. |
| fig. 1639 S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 232 In such tender years they are ships without North-starre, Rudder, or anchor. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. xxix. (1674) 32, [I] resolved to steer..by the assured North-Star of the afore-said Sentence. 1730 Fielding Rape upon Rape iii. vi, A widow with fourscore thousand pounds in her pocket—There's a North star to steer by! |