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indirect, a.|ɪndɪˈrɛkt, -daɪˈrɛkt|
[a. F. indirect (1364 in Godef. Compl.) or ad. L. indīrectus (Quintilian), f. in- (in-3) + dīrectus direct.]
Not direct.
1. a. Of a way, path, or course: Not straight; crooked, devious; also of a movement: Oblique. (Chiefly fig., often with suggestion of b.)
1474Caxton Chesse iv. 1 [lf. 66] The quene foloweth..to a place indirect in the maner of a rook in to the black poynt tofore the physicien [Cessoles (ed. 1505, h 1): Ad locum indirectum ad modum Rochi in quadro nigro ante medicum]. 1595C. Middleton Swimming 8 Unorderly labouring in the water, they by the indirect mooving of their bodyes pull downe themselves. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. v. 185 Heauen knowes..By what by-pathes, and indirect crook'd⁓ways I met this Crowne. 1638Suckling Aglaura i. i. (1646) 6 The indirect way's the nearest. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 631 O pittie and shame, that they..should turn aside to tread Paths indirect, or in the midway faint! 1762Churchill Ghost 702 By ways oblique and indirect.
b. Of actions or feelings: Not straightforward and honest; not fair and open; ‘crooked’, deceitful, corrupt. (Also of persons: see direct a. 5 b.)
1570Act 13 Eliz. c. 20 §1 Livings..may not by corrupt and indirect Dealings be transferred to other Uses. 1604Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 111 Did you, by indirect and forced courses Subdue, and poyson this yong Maides affections? a1653Gouge Comm. Hebr. xiii. 5 Whatsoever is by force or fraud, by stealing, lying, or any other indirect course gotten, is an effect of covetousnesse. 1696Phillips, Indirect, said of a thing done by ill Practice, or under-hand Dealing, or by foul means, contrary to Law and Custom. 1708Lond. Gaz. No. 4422/7 One of Her Majesty's..Secretaries of State receiv'd a Letter..promising discovery of several indirect Practices. 1727Swift Poison. E. Curll Wks. 1755 III. i. 150, I do sincerely pray forgiveness for those indirect methods I have pursued in inventing new titles to old books, putting authors' names to things they never saw, &c.
c. Of a succession, title, etc.: Not descending or derived in a straight line.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. iii. 105 His Title, the which wee finde Too indirect, for long continuance.
d. indirect lighting (see quot. 1925).
1925Gloss. Terms Illum. & Photom. (B.S.I.) 8 Indirect lighting, a system of lighting in which the greater part of the luminous flux reaches the area to be illuminated only after reflection from a ceiling or other object external to the fitting. 1933Archit. Rev. LXXIV. 214 Indirect lighting is housed in a specially designed reflector abutting against a mirror which reflects and doubles it. 1969Bodl. Libr. Rec. VIII. 117 This lighting is not only sufficient for reading, but is diffused to give adequate indirect lighting to the immediate surroundings.
2. a. Not taking the straight or nearest course to the end in view; not going straight to the point; not acting or exercised with direct force; round-about. spec. indirect aggression, aggression by one nation by other than military means; so indirect aggressor; indirect evidence = circumstantial evidence (circumstantial a. 1); indirect rule, a system of governnment in which the governed people retain certain administrative and legal, etc., powers.
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. ii. iii. (1886) 19 All maner of waies are to be used, direct and indirect. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. Introd. Pref. (1848) 32 To condemn Figurative and Indirect ways of conveying ev'n Serious and Sacred matters, is to forget How often Christ himself made use of Parables. 1720Waterland Eight Serm. 237 The implicite or indirect proofs I shall but briefly mention. 1783Watson Philip II (1793) I. iii. 381 To agree to such an indirect form of expression, as might not alarm the pride..of the Spaniards. 1824T. Starkie Pract. Treat. Law of Evidence I. iii. 478 These positions lead immediately to an inquiry into the nature and force of indirect or circumstantial evidence. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. i. 4 The place of direct records has to be supplied, in great measure, by indirect evidence. 1922F. D. Lugard Dual Mandate Brit. Trop. Afr. x. 199 The Governor of the Gold Coast..observed: ‘The chiefs are keenly appreciative of our policy of indirect rule, and of the full powers they retain under their native institutions.’ 1928― (title) Representative forms of government and ‘indirect rule’ in British Africa. Ibid. 19, I propose in this chapter to discuss..‘Indirect Rule’—though ‘Dependent Rule’ would seem a more suitable term,—more especially in..the conditions of tropical Africa. 1931Economist 28 Mar. 667/2 He [sc. Sir Donald Cameron]..submitted that this dream would be shattered if the policy, inaugurated in Tanganyika in 1925, of developing that territory on the lines of indirect rule by the mandatory and direct economic production by the natives were allowed to develop. 1939H. Nicolson Diary 20 July (1966) 406 The Ambassador is..so interested in convincing them how right is the Soviet definition of ‘indirect aggression’ that he forgets to offer them any tea. 1940B. Ward Russian Foreign Policy 28 Mutual guarantees, the definition of indirect aggression—all these were trivial points compared with the principal obstacle, the Polish guarantee. 1957P. Worsley Trumpet shall Sound 261 This became particularly urgent, when..the growing inadequacy of direct methods of rule..brought about the introduction of Indirect Rule in many territories. 1958Hansard Commons 16 July 1245 The question is one of perverting nationalist feelings and perverting those who wish to overthrow the established order of society so that they serve to further indirect aggression. 1958Listener 7 Aug. 185/1 Much has been said about President Nasser's propaganda machine, which has given rise to a new term, ‘indirect aggression’, which in Western eyes, it seems, may now be held as justification for military intervention. 1958Spectator 8 Aug. 184/3 Nor was this member of the Baghdad Pact the only indirect aggressor against France. 1959Jowitt Dict. Eng. Law II. 960/1 Indirect evidence, proof of collateral circumstances from which a fact in controversy, not directly attested by witnesses or documents, may be inferred. 1959Spectator 21 Aug. 236/2 The invention of ‘indirect rule’, the system of governing a territory by allowing the existing tribal authorities to continue to administer tribal law under the restraint of a British Resident. 1962Listener 18 Oct. 593/2 The legacy of Britain's policy of indirect rule in this Region of Nigeria is clearly visible in the comparatively static nature of these societies.
b. Logic. (See quots., and direct a. 4 c.)
1727–41Chambers Cycl., Indirect Modes, of syllogisms, in logic, are the five last modes of the first figure..It is the conversion of the conclusion which renders the modes indirect. 1828Whately Rhet. i. ii. §1 in Encycl. Metrop. 258/1 Either the Premiss of an opponent or his Conclusion may be disproved, either in the Direct or in the Indirect Method; i.e. either by proving the truth of the Contradictory, or by showing that an absurd Conclusion may fairly be deduced from the Proposition in question. 1860Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §127. 271 Showing that something impossible or absurd follows from contradicting our conclusion is called indirect demonstration. 1864Bowen Logic v. 141 Indirect..predication was..that..in which the species was predicated of the genus [etc.]. Ibid. vii. 201 If we exclude the Fourth Figure altogether, considering Bramantip, Camenes, &c. as indirect Moods of the First, there are but fourteen direct Moods. 1891[see direct a. 4 c]. 1896Welton Manual of Logic (ed. 2) iv. iv. §128 I. 358 Reduction is indirect when a new syllogism is formed which establishes the validity of the original conclusion by showing the illegitimacy of its Contradictory.
c. Pol. Econ. Of taxation: Not levied directly upon the person on whom it ultimately falls, but charged in some other way, esp. upon the production or importation of articles of use or consumption, the price of which is thereby augmented to the consumer, who thus pays the tax in the form of increased price. Cf. direct a. 6 e.
1801A. Hamilton Wks. (1886) VII. 192 That which is called the direct tax..was always insisted upon by them as preferable to taxes of the indirect kind. 1845[see direct a. 6 e]. 1868Rogers Pol. Econ. xxii. (1876) 287 The greater part of the taxes raised in this and in most other civilised countries are known as indirect. They consist in the levy of imposts on articles of consumption [etc.]. 1884J. Rae Contemp. Socialism i. 37 Customs and indirect taxation of different kinds.
d. Metallurgy. Designating a process by which wrought iron or steel is obtained from the ore through the intermediate stage of pig iron (the usual method).
1869H. S. Osborn Metall. Iron & Steel ii. ii. 274 In ancient times iron was extracted from the ore as malleable iron. This is called the direct, in contra-distinction to the present method of producing cast iron and afterward malleable, which latter is called the indirect method. 1967W. H. Dennis Found. Iron & Steel Metall. i. 13 Gradually a technique was developed of removing the derived impurities... This process was designated fining..and resulted in wrought iron... The method involved a two-stage process: (a) Reduction of iron ore to make pig iron, and (b) remelting and purifying the pig iron to make wrought iron and hence was an indirect process in contrast to the former direct process of producing iron blooms from the ore in one stage.
e. indirect address (Computing): an address (address n. 7 b) which specifies the location of information about the address of an operand, rather than the location of the operand itself; cf. direct address s.v. direct a. 7 i; so indirect addressing vbl. n.
1959Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery Apr. 130 The 709 has built-in indirect addressing; i.e., the address field can specify the location of a location rather than the location of an operand. 1960Datamation Sept.–Oct. 33/1 Whenever an indirect address is specified, it selects another half-word in which is contained another address. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing vi. 105 One can say that the contrary of immediate addressing is indirect addressing, which can be used in certain computers and denoted by a tag in the instruction. 1979Sci. Amer. Apr. 75/3 In another method, called indirect addressing, the address given in a program specifies not the actual location of the desired data but a register or a memory cell where the address will be found. 1980C. S. French Computer Sci. xxiv. 181 If the second address is yet a further indirect address then the address is called a multi-level address.
3. Gram.
†a. indirect relation, the syntactical relation between two words which are not in full grammatical concord.
1393Langl. P. Pl. C. iv. 344 Quaþ þe kynge to conscience, ‘knowen ich wolde What is relacion rect and indyrect after..for englisch was it neuere’. Ibid. 365 Thus is relacion rect ryht as adiectif and substantif A-cordeþ in alle kyndes with his antecedent. Indirect þyng ys as ho so coueited Alle kynne kynde to knowe and to folwe, With⁓oute [case] to cacche [to] and come to boþe numbres.
b. Of speech or narration: Put in a reported form, not in the speaker's own words, but with the changes of pronouns, persons, tenses, etc. which conform it to the point of view of the reporter; oblique: opposed to direct a. 6 b.
The idioms of different languages differ widely in respect to indirect construction. In English, indirect sentences are usually introduced by that or if, expressed or understood. Thus, a speaker's actual words ‘I will not go unless you use force’, are reported indirectly, by the person addressed, as ‘he said [that] he would not go unless I used force’, by a third party as ‘he told X. [that] he would not go, unless he (X.) used force’. The question ‘Do you know me?’ becomes, in indirect narration, ‘He asked me if I knew him’, and ‘he asked X. if he knew him’.
1866Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 7) 111 In such sentences..the dependent clauses are indirect questions. 1866W. E. Jelf Grk. Gram. (ed. 4) §886 II. 627 Indirect interrog. sentences. 1870–7Moulton tr. Winer's N.T. Gram. iii. §60. 9 When words spoken by others are quoted, they are not, as a rule, brought into the structure of the sentence in the indirect construction. 1879Roby Lat. Gram. II. 342 When a statement, question [etc.] is reported in a form which makes it dependent in construction on some such words as said, the language is said to be oblique or indirect.
c. indirect object (see quots.).
1879Roby Lat. Gram. II. 54 The indirect object is the person (or thing) affected by the occurrence of an action..although not directly or primarily acted on. 1881Mason Eng. Gram. (ed. 24) 149 The Indirect Object of a verb denotes that which is indirectly affected by an action, but is not the immediate object or product of it, as ‘Give him the book’, ‘Make me a coat’.
d. indirect passive, a passive verb having for its subject the indirect object of the active voice, as I was told it; he was refused admittance; the mayor is given power and authority (see give v. 2); also, a passive voice formed on an intransitive verb construed with a preposition, the prepositional object becoming the subject of the passive verb, while the preposition becomes adverbial, as they have spoken to him, he has been spoken to; many run after her, she is much run after.
4. a. Not directly aimed at or attained; not immediately resulting from an action or cause.
1823Scott Peveril xxxix, He is one who will neither seek an indirect advantage by a specious road, nor take an evil path to gain a real good purpose. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 95 He could not bring himself to sacrifice..his salary of eight thousand pounds a year, and the far larger indirect emoluments of his office. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 9 Happiness is not the direct aim, but the indirect consequence of the good government.
b. Biol. Of nuclear or cell division: mitotic.
[1879W. Flemming in Arch. f. path. Anat. u. Physiol. LXXVII. 3 Bei anderen..Fällen..lassen sich Bilder, die anscheinend einer directen Kerntheilung entsprachen, einer indirecten (s.u.) zudeuten.] 1880Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. III. 51 In discussing the changes undergone by the nucleus in cell-division, Professor W. Flemming distinguishes two methods of division which have been described by various observers, the direct and the indirect. 1888[see amitotic a.]. 1909J. R. Green Hist. Bot. ii. i. 181 The terms indirect, and direct, nuclear division were introduced by Flemming in 1879, and were long in favour. 1925E. B. Wilson Cell (ed. 3) ii. 116 Mitosis (indirect division).
5. Of or pertaining to the work and expenses which cannot be apportioned to any particular job or undertaking, pertaining to overhead charges and subsidiary work. (Cf. direct a. 6 f.)
1903,1922[see direct a. 6 f]. 1925R. J. H. Ryall Primer of Costing 49 Labour may be employed in..repairing machinery..or in supervising the direct workers... Such labour is classified as Indirect Labour. 1966New Statesman 19 Aug. 256/1 The Americans..are more inclined to lay down precise standards for the number of indirect workers who ought to be employed in a particular location. 1974Times 4 Feb. 15/4 Its first offer..covers..some 4,300 ‘indirect’ workers—men who service the production areas—in the body plant.
6. indirect fire, gunfire aimed at a target which cannot be seen (see quot. 1918).
1879Man. Siege & Garrison Artill. Exerc. i. 23 Indirect or curved fire from guns or howitzers. Ibid. 24 Breaching by indirect fire would, as a rule, be by demolition and not by the formation of regular cuts. 1918E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 309 Indirect Fire, when the target cannot be seen, and guns are aimed by means of calculations, from map, or by bearings. Indirect Laying Fire, when the gun is laid for direction on an aiming point or on aiming points and elevation adjusted by sight clinometer. 1962Ordnance Technical Terminol. (U.S. Army Ordnance School) (AD 660 112) 162/2 Indirect fire, gunfire delivered at a target that cannot be seen from the gun position or firing ship.
▸ Association Football. Designating a free kick from which a goal may not be scored until the ball has been touched by a player other than the one taking the kick. Cf. direct adj. and adv. Additions.
1938Football Assoc. Referees' Chart & Players' Guide (rev. ed.) 22/1 An indirect free-kick shall be taken by a player of the opposite team from the place where the infringement occurred. 1969F.A. Guide to Laws of Game 197 Indirect free-kick for obstruction. 1994Independent (Nexis) 23 June 42 Stoichkov had a superbly-struck free-kick ruled out because the referee had awarded an indirect kick. 2006Laws of Game 2006 July i. 18 If play is stopped by the referee to administer a caution: the match is restarted by an indirect free kick. |