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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Direction \Di*rec"tion\, noun [L. directio: cf. F. direction.]
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.
Usage: {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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
direction
noun
1: a line leading to a place or point; "he looked the other direction"; "didn't know the way home" [syn: {way}]
2: the spatial relation between something and the course along which it points or moves; "he checked the direction and velocity of the wind"
3: a general course along which something has a tendency to develop; "I couldn't follow the direction of his thoughts"; "his ideals determined the direction of his career"; "they proposed a new direction for the firm"
4: something that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action [syn: {guidance}, {counsel}, {counseling}, {counselling}]
5: the act of managing something; "he was given overall management of the program"; "is the direction of the economy a function of government?" [syn: {management}]
6: a message describing how something is to be done; "he gave directions faster than she could follow them" [syn: {instruction}]
7: the act of setting and holding a course; "a new council was installed under the direction of the king" [syn: {steering}, {guidance}]
8: a formal statement of a command or injunction to do something; "the judge's charge to the jury" [syn: {commission}, {charge}]
9: the concentration of attention or energy on something; "the focus of activity shifted to molecular biology"; "he had no direction in his life" [syn: {focus}, {focusing}, {focussing}, {centering}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
199 Moby Thesaurus words for "direction": Zeitgeist, action, actuation, address, administering, administration, admonition, advice, advising, advocacy, agency, angle, animation, arrow, avenue, bearing, billhead, blaze, briefing, catechization, caution, caveat, charge, civil government, coaching, command, commission, compass needle, conduct, conducting, consultation, control, council, counsel, course, current, destination, dictate, didactics, directing, direction post, directions, directive, directorate, directorship, discipline, dispensation, disposition, dress rehearsal, drift, driving, edification, education, empery, empire, enlightenment, execution, exercise, exhortation, expostulation, final instructions, finger post, fist, form of government, functioning, general orders, glacial movement, governance, governing, government, guidance, guide, guideboard, guidepost, guiding, hand, handling, hortation, hour hand, idea, illumination, index, index finger, influence, information, injunction, inner-direction, instruction, instructions, lead, leadership, letterhead, line, lubber line, main current, mainstream, management, managing, manipulation, milepost, minute hand, mise-en-scene, monition, motion, motivation, mounting, movement, moving, name and address, needle, occupation, operancy, operating, operation, opinion, order, orders, other-direction, outlook, oversight, parley, pedagogics, pedagogy, performance, performing, pointer, pointing, political organization, polity, postal zone, practice, precept, prescript, prescription, private teaching, production, programmed instruction, prompting, proposal, recommendation, reeducation, regime, regimen, regnancy, regulation, rehearsal, reign, remonstrance, responsibility, road, route, rule, run, run-through, running, schooling, self-instruction, self-teaching, set, side, signboard, signpost, slant, sovereignty, spoon-feeding, stage management, staging, standpoint, steering, stimulation, stream, suggestion, superscription, supervising, supervision, sway, swing, system of government, teaching, tenor, the general tendency, the main course, thought, time spirit, tone, trend, tuition, tutelage, tutorage, tutoring, tutorship, walk-through, warning, way, work, working, workings, zip code, zone
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |