DIRECTION • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Direction

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/dərˈɛkʃən/ /dɪrˈɛkʃɪn/ /daɪrˈɛkʃɪn/ Listen

noun

Direction n.

1.

The act of directing, of aiming, regulating, guiding, or ordering; guidance; management; superintendence; administration; as, the direction of public affairs or of a bank. "I do commit his youth To your direction." "All nature is but art, unknown to thee; ll chance, direction, which thou canst not see."

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."

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.

Synonyms: 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.

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Etymology of 'Direction'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Direction" Quotes from Famous Books

... his lips, but trembling and dismayed in spite of himself, Israel Wurm left the presence of the indignant victim of his cruelty, and turned his footsteps in the direction of his home. His home! It scarcely deserved the name. There was no fire there to thaw his chilled and trembling frame—no light to gleam athwart the darkness, and send forth its pilgrim rays to meet him and guide his footsteps to his threshold. No wife, no children, ...

— The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales • Francis A. Durivage

... answered, "an' so the poor lad seemed to think too. I saw he was tryin' to speak, an' I put my ear close to his lips, thinkin' he might have some message he wanted to give. But, tryin' to look in the direction where Howkle had gone, he whispered, 'Don't blame the Union.' He was thinkin' more o' the credit o' his side than of his ...

— The Boy With the U.S. Census • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... the service of large bodies and of the community absorbing the higher artistic gifts in works necessarily accessible to the multitude; and the humbler talents—all the good amateur quality at present wasted in ambitious efforts—being applied in every direction to the satisfaction of individual ...

— Laurus Nobilis - Chapters on Art and Life • Vernon Lee

... governor. A stage-driver sat at one of the windows reading a penny paper of the day—the Boston Times—and presenting a figure which could nowise be brought into any picture of "Times in Boston" seventy or a hundred years ago. On the window-seat lay a bundle neatly done up in brown paper, the direction of which I had the idle curiosity to read: "MISS SUSAN HUGGINS, at the PROVINCE HOUSE." A pretty chambermaid, no doubt. In truth, it is desperately hard work when we attempt to throw the spell of hoar antiquity over localities with which the living world and the day ...

— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... truth—and, without a moment's hesitation, he called Cutler back, took the paper, and enrolled his name. Cutler laughed again, said he would not have done so, had he been in Stone's circumstances, and, after some further conversation, walked away in the direction of Stone's residence. Whether he actually entered the house is not known; but when the young husband returned home, a few hours afterward, his wife's first words indicated that she knew of ...

— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel

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