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/dərˈɛkt ˈɛvədəns/ Listen

adjective

Direct adj.

1.

Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means. "What is direct to, what slides by, the question."

2.

Straightforward; not of crooked ways, or swerving from truth and openness; sincere; outspoken. "Be even and direct with me."

3.

Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous. "He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words." "A direct and avowed interference with elections."

4.

In the line of descent; not collateral; as, a descendant in the direct line.

5.

(Astron.) 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.

6.

(Political Science) Pertaining to, or effected immediately by, action of the people through their votes instead of through one or more representatives or delegates; as, direct nomination, direct legislation.

Direct action.

(a)

(Mach.) See Direct-acting.

(b)

(Trade unions) See Syndicalism, below.

Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said "I can not come;" correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not come. They are often called respectively by their Latin names, oratio directa, and oratio obliqua.

Direct evidence (Law), evidence which is positive or not inferential; opposed to circumstantial evidence, or indirect evidence. This distinction, however, is merely formal, since there is no direct evidence that is not circumstantial, or dependent on circumstances for its credibility.

Direct examination (Law), the first examination of a witness in the orderly course, upon the merits.

Direct fire (Mil.), fire, the direction of which is perpendicular to the line of troops or to the parapet aimed at.

Direct process (Metal.), one which yields metal in working condition by a single process from the ore.

Direct tax, a tax assessed directly on lands, etc., and polls, distinguished from taxes on merchandise, or customs, and from excise.

See images of 'Direct evidence'

Etymology of 'Direct evidence'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Direct evidence" Quotes from Famous Books

... at nothing less than his ruin. Another immediate result was that the few friends whom Liszt had induced to declare themselves in my favour forthwith took refuge in a discreet silence. As it soon seemed advisable, in the interests of their own productions, to give direct evidence of their estrangement from me, most of them passed over to the ranks of my enemies. But Uhlig clung to me all the more closely on this account. He strengthened Brendel's weaker will to endurance, and kept ...

— My Life, Volume II • Richard Wagner

... total length of this massive specimen is estimated at sixty-three feet, or from six to eight feet less than the largest "long-limbed" dinosaur. The height of the skeleton at the hips is fifteen feet. There is less direct evidence that the "thunder saurian" had the power of raising its fore quarters in the air than in the case of the "light-limbed saurian," because no bend or supporting point in the tail has ...

— Dinosaurs - With Special Reference to the American Museum Collections • William Diller Matthew

... purchases and orders. No one had suspected her money matters of being in disorder, and Rachel was very slow to comprehend; her simple, country life had made her utterly unaware of the difficulties and ways and means of a young lady of fashion. Even the direct evidence before her eyes would not at first persuade her that it was not "all those wicked tradesmen;" she had always heard that fashionable shops ...

— The Clever Woman of the Family • Charlotte M. Yonge

... this pretended confession, on that occasion; their close and reserved silence, at the time when they must have had this confession of Paris in their pocket; and their publishing every other circumstance that could tend to blacken the queen, and yet omitting this confession, the only direct evidence of her supposed guilt; all this duly and dispassionately considered, I think, one may safely conclude, that it was judged not fit to expose, so soon, to light this piece of evidence against the queen; which a cloud of witnesses, living, and present at Paris's execution, would, surely, have given ...

— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 6 - Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons • Samuel Johnson

... and Declarations, the Jesuits were provided with an esoteric code of rules known as Monita Secreta.[169] The existence of such a manual, which was supposed to contain the very pith of Jesuitical policy, has been confidently asserted and no less confidently denied. In the absence of direct evidence, it may be worth quoting two passages from Sarpi's Letters, which prove that this keen-sighted observer believed the Society to be governed in its practice by statutes inaccessible to all but its most trusted members. 'I have always admired the policy of the Jesuits,' he writes ...

— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds

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