direct

adj

1. Proceeding without deviation or interruption.
2. Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end.

   “the most direct route between two buildings”

3. Straightforward; sincere.

   “Be even and direct with me.”

4. Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.

   “He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words.”

   “Nor did the government scruple a direct and avowed interference with elections.”

5. In the line of descent; not collateral.

   “a descendant in the direct line”

6. 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.
7. Pertaining to, or effected immediately by, action of the people through their votes instead of through one or more representatives or delegates.

   “direct nomination; direct legislation”

8. Having a single flight number.
9. Not employing the law of the excluded middle or argument by contradiction.

adv

1. Directly.

   “The walls, which are fixed direct into the ground without a plinth, are made of wattle and plastered with a thin lair of mud or cowdung.”

   “Presumably Mary is to carry messages that she, Anne, is too delicate to convey direct.”

verb

1. To manage, control, steer.

   “to direct the affairs of a nation or the movements of an army”

   “Pent up in Utica he vainly forms A poor Epitome of Roman Greatneſs, And, cover’d with Numidian Guards, directs A feeble Army, and an empty Senate, Remnants of mighty Battels fought in vain.”

2. To aim (something) at (something else).

   “They directed their fire towards the men on the wall.”

   “He directed his question to the room in general.”

3. To point out to or show (somebody) the right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way; to refer.

   “He directed me to the left-hand road.”

   “the next points to which I will direct your attention”

4. To point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order.

   “She directed them to leave immediately.”

   “I'll first direct my men what they shall do.”

5. (dated)To address (a letter) to a particular person or place.

   “[A]s I do not know where I shall be, and shall have my letters sent after me as soon as I do know, continue to direct hither.”