NORTH STAR • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of North Star

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/nɔrθ stɑr/ Listen

adjective

North adj. Lying toward the north; situated at the north, or in a northern direction from the point of observation or reckoning; proceeding toward the north, or coming from the north.

North following. See Following, a., 2.

North pole, that point in the heavens, or on the earth, ninety degrees from the equator toward the north.

North preceding. See Following, a., 2.

North star, the star toward which the north pole of the earth very nearly points, and which accordingly seems fixed and immovable in the sky. The star alpha of the Little Bear, is our present north star, being distant from the pole about 1° 25´, and from year to year approaching slowly nearer to it. It is called also Cynosura, polestar, and by astronomers, Polaris.

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Etymology of 'North Star'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"North star" Quotes from Famous Books

... that we were bound to the southward, by the order of his Britannic majesty, to observe a transit of the planet Venus over the sun, an astronomical phenomenon of great importance to navigation. Of the transit of Venus, however, he could form no other conception, than that it was the passing of the north star through the south pole; for these are the very words of his interpreter, who was a Swede, and spoke English very well. I did not think it necessary to ask permission for the gentlemen to come on shore during ...

— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... principle we have become from a feeble nation the most powerful upon the face of the earth, and if we only adhere to that principle we can go forward increasing in territory, in power, in strength, and in glory, until the Republic of America shall be the North Star that shall guide the friends of freedom throughout the civilized world. I believe that his new doctrine preached by Mr. Lincoln will dissolve the Union if it succeeds; trying to array all the Northern States in one body against the Southern; to ...

— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... passage, and caused me to deviate in direction, so that I grew somewhat bewildered, the entire surface bearing such uniformity of outline as to afford little guide. Yet I held to my original course fairly well, for I could pilot somewhat by the dim north star; and it was not long before my alert ears caught the pounding of surf along the shore-line. Much encouraged, I pressed forward with greater rapidity, ignoring the lanes between the dunes, and clambering over the mounds themselves in my eagerness to reach the ...

— When Wilderness Was King - A Tale of the Illinois Country • Randall Parrish

... the doctor, "our great master Hippocrates, the north star and luminary of medicine, says in one of his aphorisms, Omnis saturatio mala, perdicis autem pessima; which means, 'All repletion is bad, but ...

— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... one the stars have risen and set, Sparkling upon the hoar-frost of my chain; The Bear that prowled all night about the fold Of the North Star, hath shrunk into his den, Scared by the blithsome footsteps of ...

— TITLE • AUTHOR

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