DIRECT

direct. direct, guide, or rule: right, straight, also to order.

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direct. Direct, a. strait, right, open express, plain, full

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Di‐rect″ (?), a. [[L. directus, p. p. of dirigere to direct: cf. F. direct. See Dress, and cf. Dirge.]] 1. 1. Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means.
What is direct to, what slides by, the question. Locke. 2. 2. Straightforward; not of crooked ways, or swerving from truth and openness; sincere; outspoken.
Be even and direct with me. Shak. 3. 3. Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.
He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words. Locke. A direct and avowed interference with elections. Hallam. 4. 4. In the line of descent; not collateral; as, a descendant in the direct line.
5. 5. (Astron.) In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; — said of the motion of a celestial body.
Direct action. (Mach.) See Direct-acting. — Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said “I can not come;” — correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not come. They are often called respectively by their Latin names, oratio directa, and oratio obliqua. — Direct evidence (Law), evidence which is positive or not inferential; — opposed to circumstantial, or indirect, evidence. — This distinction, however, is merely formal, since there is no direct evidence that is not circumstantial, or dependent on circumstances for its credibility. Wharton. — Direct examination (Law), the first examination of a witness in the orderly course, upon the merits. Abbott. — Direct fire (Mil.), fire, the direction of which is perpendicular to the line of troops or to the parapet aimed at. — Direct process (Metal.), one which yields metal in working condition by a single process from the ore. Knight. — Direct tax, a tax assessed directly on lands, etc., and polls, distinguished from taxes on merchandise, or customs, and from excise.