1. The act of directing, of aiming, regulating, guiding, or ordering; guidance; management; superintendence; administration; as,
the direction o public affairs or of a bank.
I do commit his youth
To your direction.
Shak.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
ll chance, direction, which thou canst not see.
Pope. 2. That which is imposed by directing; a guiding or authoritative instruction; prescription; order; command; as,
he grave directions to the servants.
The princes digged the well . . . by the direction of the law giver.
Numb. xxi. 18. 3. The name and residence of a person to whom any thing is sent, written upon the thing sent; superscription; address; as,
the direction of a letter.
4. The line or course upon which anything is moving or aimed to move, or in which anything is lying or
pointing; aim; line or point of tendency; direct line or course; as, the ship sailed in a southeasterly direction.
5. The body of managers of a corporation or enterprise; board of directors.
6. (Gun.) The pointing of a piece with reference to an imaginary vertical axis; — distinguished from
elevation. The direction is given when the plane of sight passes through the object. Wilhelm.
Syn. — Administration; guidance; management; superintendence; oversight; government; order; command; guide; clew.
Direction, Control, Command, Order. These words, as here compared, have reference to the exercise
of power over the actions of others. Control is negative, denoting power to restrain; command is positive,
implying a right to enforce obedience; directions are commands containing instructions how to act. Order
conveys more prominently the idea of authority than the word direction. A shipmaster has the command
of his vessel; he gives orders or directions to the seamen as to the mode of sailing it; and exercises a
due control over the passengers.
Directive
(Di*rect"ive) a. [LL. directivus: cf. F. directif.]
1. Having power to direct; tending to direct, guide, or govern; showing the way. Hooker.
The precepts directive of our practice in relation to God.
Barrow. 2. Able to be directed; manageable. [Obs.]
Swords and bows
Directive by the limbs.
Shak. Directly
(Di*rect"ly), adv.
1. In a direct manner; in a straight line or course. "To run directly on." Shak.
Indirectly and directly too
Thou hast contrived against the very life
Of the defendant.
Shak. 2. In a straightforward way; without anything intervening; not by secondary, but by direct, means.
3. Without circumlocution or ambiguity; absolutely; in express terms.
No man hath hitherto been so impious as plainly and directly to condemn prayer.
Hooker. 4. Exactly; just.
Stand you directly in Antonius' way.
Shak.
