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Definition of "direct" []

  • To manage or conduct the affairs of; regulate. (verb-transitive)
  • To have or take charge of; control. See Synonyms at conduct. (verb-transitive)
  • To give authoritative instructions to: directed the student to answer. (verb-transitive)
  • To cause to move toward a goal; aim. See Synonyms at aim. (verb-transitive)
  • To show or indicate the way for: directed us to the airport. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "direct" in a sentence
  • "Diary Entry by Ross Levin (about the author) yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Action Alert: Money bomb today to fund a documentary about direct democracy, plus other activism'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'There\'s been a lot of talk about \'direct democracy\' since Obama was elected - about how his campaign involved people at a level never before seen in national politics, how his White House has been using online programs to get peoples\ 'input, and so on."
  • "-- _Rewrite these same sentences, changing the direct quotations and questions to indirect, and the indirect to direct_."
  • "If there are any who imagine, that positive and direct evidence is absolutely necessary to conviction, they are much mistaken; it is a mistake, I believe, very common with those who commit offences: they fancy that they are secure because they are not seen at the moment; but you may prove their guilt as conclusively, perhaps even more satisfactorily, by _circumstantial evidence_, as by any _direct evidence_ that can possibly be given."