sextant

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sex·tant

(sĕk′stənt)

1. A navigational instrument containing a graduated 60-degree arc, used for measuring the altitudes of celestial bodies for use in determining the latitude and longitude of the observer.

2. Sextant See Sextans.

[New Latin sextāns, sextant-, from Latin, sixth part (so called because the instrument's arc is a sixth of a circle), from sextus, sixth; see s(w)eks in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sextant

(ˈsɛkstənt)

1. (Navigation) an optical instrument used in navigation and consisting of a telescope through which a sighting of a heavenly body is taken, with protractors for determining its angular distance above the horizon or from another heavenly body

2. (Tools) an optical instrument used in navigation and consisting of a telescope through which a sighting of a heavenly body is taken, with protractors for determining its angular distance above the horizon or from another heavenly body

3. (Mathematics) a sixth part of a circle having an arc which subtends an angle of 60°

[C17: from Latin sextāns one sixth of a unit]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sex•tant

(ˈsɛk stənt)

n.

an astronomical instrument used to determine latitude and longitude at sea by measuring angular distances, esp. the altitudes of sun, moon, and stars.

[1590–1600; < New Latin sextant-, s. of sextāns, Latin: sixth part of a unit (see sext, -ant); the instrument has a graduated arc equal to a sixth of a circle]

sextant

a navigational instrument for determining latitude and longitude by measuring the angles of heavenly bodies in relation to the horizon or other heavenly bodies.

sextant

[ˈsekstənt] N → sextante m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sextant

n → Sextant m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in classic literature ?

A great sea chest stood open in the center, and allround upon the carpet were little piles of jerseys, oil-skins, books, sextant boxes, instruments, and sea-boots.

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The sextant and chronometer had both been broken beyond repair, and they had been broken just this very night.

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The instruments provided for the journey consisted of two barometers, two thermometers, two compasses, a sextant, two chronometers, an artificial horizon, and an altazimuth, to throw out the height of distant and inaccessible objects.

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Some are known to you, such as the thermometer, which gives the internal temperature of the Nautilus; the barometer, which indicates the weight of the air and foretells the changes of the weather; the hygrometer, which marks the dryness of the atmosphere; the storm-glass, the contents of which, by decomposing, announce the approach of tempests; the compass, which guides my course; the sextant, which shows the latitude by the altitude of the sun; chronometers, by which I calculate the longitude; and glasses for day and night, which I use to examine the points of the horizon, when the Nautilus rises to the surface of the waves."

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In the course of time I brought up on the starboard side of the pilot-house and found a sextant lying on a bench.

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No standard compasses, and you know what a small-boat horizon is, with a big sea, for a sextant. He died, but the dying course he gave me held good, so that I fetched the atoll the very next day after I hove his body overboard."

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In his many travels, Edgar Caswall had been accustomed to use the sextant, and was now an expert in the matter.

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Burns motioned the crew to leave the cabin, but he detained the two eldest men to stay with the captain while he went on deck with his sextant to "take the sun." It was getting toward noon and he was anxious to obtain a good observation for latitude.

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A hypsometer to measure the height of the lunar mountains, a sextant to take the height of the sun, glasses which would be useful as they neared the moon, all these instruments were carefully looked over, and pronounced good in spite of the violent shock.

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"I wish I had thought to bring Wolf Larsen's chronometer and sextant," I said, still gloomily.

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McCoy smiled soothingly, but the captain glared about him like a madman, fetched his sextant, and took a chronometer sight.

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The place is stored with great variety of sextants, quadrants, telescopes, astrolabes, and other astronomical instruments.

Noun	1.	sextant - a unit of angular distance equal to 60 degrees circumference - the length of the closed curve of a circle angular unit - a unit of measurement for angles arcdegree, degree - a measure for arcs and angles; "there are 360 degrees in a circle"
	2.	sextant - a measuring instrument for measuring the angular distance between celestial objects; resembles an octant astrolabe - an early form of sextant limb - the graduated arc that is attached to an instrument for measuring angles; "the limb of the sextant" measuring device, measuring instrument, measuring system - instrument that shows the extent or amount or quantity or degree of something