Adjacent Words

Indirect definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INDIRECT', a. [L. indirectus; in and directus, from dirigo.]
1. Not straight or rectilinear; deviating from a direct line or course; circuitous. From New York to England by Bordeaux, is an indirect course.
2. Not direct; in a moral sense; not tending to a purpose by the shortest or plainest course, or by the obvious, ordinary means, but obliquely or consequentially; by remote means; as an indirect accusation; an indirect attack on reputation; an indirect answer or proposal. Hence,
3. Wrong; improper.
4. Not fair; not honest; tending to mislead or deceive.
Indirect dealing will be discovered one time or other.
5. Indirect tax, is a tax or duty on articles of consumption, as an excise, customs, etc.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: having intervening factors or persons or influences; "reflection from the ceiling provided a soft indirect light"; "indirect evidence"; "an indirect cause"
2: not direct in spatial dimension; not leading by a straight line or course to a destination; "sometimes taking an indirect path saves time"; "you must take an indirect course in sailing" [ant: direct]
3: descended from a common ancestor but through different lines; "cousins are collateral relatives"; "an indirect descendant of the Stuarts" [syn: collateral, indirect] [ant: direct, lineal]
4: extended senses; not direct in manner or language or behavior or action; "making indirect but legitimate inquiries"; "an indirect insult"; "doubtless they had some indirect purpose in mind"; "though his methods are indirect they are not dishonest"; "known as a shady indirect fellow" [ant: direct]
5: not as a direct effect or consequence; "indirect benefits"; "an indirect advantage"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin indirectus, from Latin in- + directus direct — more at dress Date: 14th century not direct: as a. (1) deviating from a direct line or course ; roundabout (2) not going straight to the point <an indirect accusation> (3) being or involving proof of a proposition or theorem by demonstration that its negation leads to an absurdity or contradiction b. not straightforward and open ; deceitful c. not directly aimed at or achieved <indirect consequences> d. stating what a real or supposed original speaker said with changes in wording that conform the statement grammatically to the sentence in which it is included <indirect discourse> <an indirect question> e. not effected by the action of the people or the electorate <indirect government representation> • indirectly adverb • indirectness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 not going straight to the point. 2 (of a route etc.) not straight. 3 not directly sought or aimed at (an indirect result). 4 (of lighting) from a concealed source and diffusely reflected. Phrases and idioms: indirect object Gram. a person or thing affected by a verbal action but not primarily acted on (e.g. him in give him the book). indirect question Gram. a question in reported speech (e.g. they asked who I was). indirect speech (or oration) = reported speech (see REPORT). indirect tax a tax levied on goods and services and not on income or profits. Derivatives: indirectly adv. indirectness n. Etymology: ME f. OF indirect or med.L indirectus (as IN-(1), DIRECT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Indirect In`di*rect", a. [Pref. in- not + direct: cf. F. indirect.] 1. Not direct; not straight or rectilinear; deviating from a direct line or course; circuitous; as, an indirect road. 2. Not tending to an aim, purpose, or result by the plainest course, or by obvious means, but obliquely or consequentially; by remote means; as, an indirect accusation, attack, answer, or proposal. By what bypaths and indirect, crooked ways I met this crown. --Shak. 3. Not straightforward or upright; unfair; dishonest; tending to mislead or deceive. Indirect dealing will be discovered one time or other. --Tillotson. 4. Not resulting directly from an act or cause, but more or less remotely connected with or growing out of it; as, indirect results, damages, or claims. 5. (Logic & Math.) Not reaching the end aimed at by the most plain and direct method; as, an indirect proof, demonstration, etc. Indirect claims, claims for remote or consequential damage. Such claims were presented to and thrown out by the commissioners who arbitrated the damage inflicted on the United States by the Confederate States cruisers built and supplied by Great Britain. Indirect demonstration, a mode of demonstration in which proof is given by showing that any other supposition involves an absurdity (reductio ad absurdum), or an impossibility; thus, one quantity may be proved equal to another by showing that it can be neither greater nor less. Indirect discourse. (Gram.) See Direct discourse, under Direct. Indirect evidence, evidence or testimony which is circumstantial or inferential, but without witness; -- opposed to direct evidence. Indirect tax, a tax, such as customs, excises,

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Demonstration Dem`on*stra"tion, n. [L. demonstratio: cf. F. d['e]monstration.] 1. The act of demonstrating; an exhibition; proof; especially, proof beyond the possibility of doubt; indubitable evidence, to the senses or reason. Those intervening ideas which serve to show the agreement of any two others are called ``proofs;'' and where agreement or disagreement is by this means plainly and clearly perceived, it is called demonstration. --Locke. 2. An expression, as of the feelings, by outward signs; a manifestation; a show. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief? --Shak. Loyal demonstrations toward the prince. --Prescott. 3. (Anat.) The exhibition and explanation of a dissection or other anatomical preparation. 4. (Mil.) a decisive exhibition of force, or a movement indicating an attack. 5. (Logic) The act of proving by the syllogistic process, or the proof itself. 6. (Math.) A course of reasoning showing that a certain result is a necessary consequence of assumed premises; -- these premises being definitions, axioms, and previously established propositions. Direct, or Positive, demonstration (Logic & Math.), one in which the correct conclusion is the immediate sequence of reasoning from axiomatic or established premises; -- opposed to Indirect, or Negative, demonstration (called also reductio ad absurdum), in which the correct conclusion is an inference from the demonstration that any other hypothesis must be incorrect.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tax Tax, n. [F. taxe, fr. taxer to tax, L. taxare to touch, sharply, to feel, handle, to censure, value, estimate, fr. tangere, tactum, to touch. See Tangent, and cf. Task, Taste.] 1. A charge, especially a pecuniary burden which is imposed by authority. Specifically: (a) A charge or burden laid upon persons or property for the support of a government. A farmer of taxes is, of all creditors, proverbially the most rapacious. --Macaulay. (b) Especially, the sum laid upon specific things, as upon polls, lands, houses, income, etc.; as, a land tax; a window tax; a tax on carriages, and the like. Note: Taxes are annual or perpetual, direct or indirect, etc. (c) A sum imposed or levied upon the members of a society to defray its expenses. 2. A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject. 3. A disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; as, a heavy tax on time or health. 4. Charge; censure. [Obs.] --Clarendon. 5. A lesson to be learned; a task. [Obs.] --Johnson. Tax cart, a spring cart subject to a low tax. [Eng.] Syn: Impost; tribute; contribution; duty; toll; rate; assessment; exaction; custom; demand.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. An indirect result or effect is not caused immediately and obviously by a thing or person, but happens because of something else that they have done. Businesses are feeling the indirect effects from the recession that's going on elsewhere... ? direct ADJ: usu ADJ n • indirectly Drugs are indirectly responsible for the violence... ADV: usu ADV adj, ADV with v, also ADV with cl 2. An indirect route or journey does not use the shortest or easiest way between two places. The goods went by a rather indirect route. ? direct ADJ 3. Indirect remarks and information suggest something or refer to it, without actually mentioning it or stating it clearly. His remarks amounted to an indirect appeal for economic aid... ADJ • indirectly He referred indirectly to the territorial dispute. ADV: ADV with v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Circuitous, tortuous, roundabout. 2. Roundabout, oblique, collateral, not directly to the point. 3. Unfair, dishonest, dishonorable. 4. Mediate, secondary, subordinate, remote.

Moby Thesaurus

O-shaped, aberrant, aberrative, accessory, accidental, additional, adscititious, adventitious, ambagious, amoral, ancillary, artful, backhand, backhanded, calculating, chiseling, circuitous, circular, circumambient, circumlocutional, circumlocutory, collateral, collusive, coming, conscienceless, contingent, corrupt, corrupted, covinous, crafty, criminal, crooked, cunning, dark, deceitful, deflectional, departing, desultory, deviant, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, digressive, discursive, dishonest, dishonorable, divagational, divergent, doubtful, dubious, duplicitous, errant, erratic, evasive, eventual, excursive, false, falsehearted, felonious, finagling, final, fishy, fraudulent, furtive, guileful, helical, ill-got, ill-gotten, immoral, incidental, insidious, labyrinthine, last, left-handed, mazy, meandering, not kosher, oblique, orbital, out-of-the-way, periphrastic, planetary, questionable, rambling, rotary, rotten, round, roundabout, roving, scheming, secondary, serpentine, shady, shameless, sharp, shifting, shifty, side, sidelong, sinister, sinistral, sinuous, slippery, snaky, sneaking, sneaky, spiral, stray, subordinate, subsidiary, surreptitious, suspicious, swerving, tortuous, treacherous, trickish, tricky, turning, twisted, twisting, two-faced, ultimate, unconscienced, unconscientious, unconscionable, underhand, underhanded, undirected, unethical, unprincipled, unsavory, unscrupulous, unstraightforward, vagrant, veering, wandering, wily, winding, without remorse, without shame, zigzag