Definition of "sextant"

sextant

/ˈsɛk.stənt/

noun
plural sextants
1. (nautical) A navigational device for deriving angular distances between objects so as to determine latitude and longitude.
  Quotations
  […] I can do more with a Quadrant, Sextant or Octant, of 1 foot Radius, furniſhed with Teleſcopical Sights and Screws, then [sic] can poſſibly be done with any other Inſtrument, furniſhed only with Common Sights, though 10, 20, 30, nay threeſcore foot Radius; […]
  1674, Robert Hooke, Animadversions on the Firſt Part of the Machina Coelestis of the […] Aſtronomer Johannes Hevelius […] ‎, page 43
  I took our position every morning with my crude sextant; but the results were always most unsatisfactory.
  1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, part 1, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927,
  Moskowitz and Devereux have designed a hyperaccurate sextant for interstellar navigation based upon the design of the sextant used by the Apollo astronauts.
  1981, Saul J. Adelman, Benjamin Adelman, Bound for the Stars, page 227
2. (geometry) One sixth of a circle or disc; a sector with an angle of 60°.
3. (dentistry) One of six groups of adjacent teeth, excluding the wisdom teeth. The front sextants go from canine to canine, and there are sextants on the right and left of these. See w:Periodontal examination.