All 50 Uses of
direct
in
Moby Dick
- The whale fell directly over him, and probably killed him in a moment.
Chpt Extr (definition 1)directly = exactly where stated (used for emphasis)
- These things are reciprocal; the ball rebounds, only to bound forward again; for now in laying open the haunts of the whale, the whalemen seem to have indirectly hit upon new clews to that same mystic North-West Passage.
Chpt Extr (definition 2)indirectly = incidentally (not the main objective)standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Supper'll be ready directly.
Chpt 1-3 (definition 3) *directly = in a short time
- For sinful as he is, Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance. He feels that his dreadful punishment is just. He leaves all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with this, that spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look towards His holy temple. And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment.
Chpt 7-9 (definition 1)direct = personal and immediate
- He was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe, which, it seemed, had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed his soul, when we were directly attracted to the sleeping rigger.
Chpt 19-21 (definition 3)directly = in a short time
- That is to say, they take their meals in the captain's cabin, and sleep in a place indirectly communicating with it.
Chpt 31-33 (definition 2)indirectly = in a roundabout manner (incidentally because of location)standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Nor, will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direct swing, ever forget a hint, incidentally so important in his art, as the one now alluded to.
Chpt 31-33 (definition 1)direct = straight (to the target)
- …many of them adventurously pushing their quest along solitary latitudes, so as seldom or never for a whole twelvemonth or more on a stretch, to encounter a single news-telling sail of any sort; the inordinate length of each separate voyage; the irregularity of the times of sailing from home; all these, with other circumstances, direct and indirect, long obstructed the spread through the whole world-wide whaling-fleet of the special individualizing tidings concerning Moby Dick.
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2)direct = straightforward (not considering secondary effects)
- …many of them adventurously pushing their quest along solitary latitudes, so as seldom or never for a whole twelvemonth or more on a stretch, to encounter a single news-telling sail of any sort; the inordinate length of each separate voyage; the irregularity of the times of sailing from home; all these, with other circumstances, direct and indirect, long obstructed the spread through the whole world-wide whaling-fleet of the special individualizing tidings concerning Moby Dick.
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2)indirect = not straightforward (not obvious and simple)standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirect means not and reverses the meaning of direct. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- For not only are whalemen as a body unexempt from that ignorance and superstitiousness hereditary to all sailors; but of all sailors, they are by all odds the most directly brought into contact with whatever is appallingly astonishing in the sea; face to face they not only eye its greatest marvels, but, hand to jaw, give battle to them.
Chpt 40-42 (definition 1)directly = personally (without anything in between)
- …and though directly from the Latin word for white, all Christian priests derive the name of one part of their sacred vesture, the alb or tunic, worn beneath the cassock; and ...; yet for all these accumulated associations, with whatever is sweet, and honourable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood.
Chpt 40-42 (definition 1)directly = straight (without anything in between)
- Yet, in saying this, I do but indirectly burnish a little brighter the noble merit of the poem and the poet.
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2) *indirectly = incidentally (not the main objective)standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Can we, then, by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of whiteness—though for the time either wholly or in great part stripped of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught fearful, but nevertheless, is found to exert over us the same sorcery, however modified;—can we thus hope to light upon some chance clue to conduct us to the hidden cause we seek?
Chpt 40-42 (definition 2)direct = clear
- So far as what there may be of a narrative in this book; and, indeed, as indirectly touching one or two very interesting and curious particulars in the habits of sperm whales, the foregoing chapter, in its earlier part, is as important a one as will be found in this volume; but the leading matter of it requires to be still further and more familiarly enlarged upon, in order to be adequately understood, and moreover to take away any incredulity which a profound ignorance of the entire…
Chpt 43-45 (definition 2)indirectly = incidentally (not the main objective)standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- In fact, did you ever hear what might be called regular news direct or indirect from New Guinea?
Chpt 43-45 (definition 1)direct = straight (without anything in between)
- In fact, did you ever hear what might be called regular news direct or indirect from New Guinea?
Chpt 43-45 (definition 1)indirect = with the involvement of other people or thingsstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirect means not and reverses the meaning of direct. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- That point is this: The Sperm Whale is in some cases sufficiently powerful, knowing, and judiciously malicious, as with direct aforethought to stave in, utterly destroy, and sink a large ship; and what is more, the Sperm Whale HAS done it.
Chpt 43-45 (definition 2)direct = clear
- Ere long, several of the whales were wounded; when, suddenly, a very large whale escaping from the boats, issued from the shoal, and bore directly down upon the ship.
Chpt 43-45 (definition 1)directly = straight (in a straight line)
- Every fact seemed to warrant me in concluding that it was anything but chance which directed his operations;
Chpt 43-45 (definition 4) *directed = guided
- He came directly from the shoal which we had just before entered, and in which we had struck three of his companions, as if fired with revenge for their sufferings.
Chpt 43-45 (definition 1)directly = straight (without anything in between)
- Having impulsively, it is probable, and perhaps somewhat prematurely revealed the prime but private purpose of the Pequod's voyage, Ahab was now entirely conscious that, in so doing, he had indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of usurpation; and with perfect impunity, both moral and legal, his crew if so disposed, and to that end competent, could refuse all further obedience to him, and even violently wrest from him the command.
Chpt 46-48 (definition 2)indirectly = incidentally (not intentionally)standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- The straight warp of necessity, not to be swerved from its ultimate course—its every alternating vibration, indeed, only tending to that; free will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads; and chance, though restrained in its play within the right lines of necessity, and sideways in its motions directed by free will, though thus prescribed to by both, chance by turns rules either, and has the last featuring blow at events.
Chpt 46-48 (definition 4)directed = guided
- Tashtego reporting that the whales had gone down heading to leeward, we confidently looked to see them again directly in advance of our bows.
Chpt 46-48 (definition 1)directly = in a straight line
- The strange, upheaving, lifting tendency of the taffrail breeze filling the hollows of so many sails, made the buoyant, hovering deck to feel like air beneath the feet; while still she rushed along, as if two antagonistic influences were struggling in her—one to mount direct to heaven, the other to drive yawingly to some horizontal goal.
Chpt 49-51 (definition 1)direct = straight (without going anywhere else first)
- But calm, snow-white, and unvarying; still directing its fountain of feathers to the sky; still beckoning us on from before, the solitary jet would at times be descried.
Chpt 49-51 (definition 4)directing = pointing
- For, though himself and boat's crew remained untainted, and though his ship was half a rifle-shot off, and an incorruptible sea and air rolling and flowing between; yet conscientiously adhering to the timid quarantine of the land, he peremptorily refused to come into direct contact with the Pequod.
Chpt 70-72 (definition 1)direct = actual (with nothing in between)
- It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them.
Chpt 73-75 (definition 2)indirectly = in a complicated, non-obvious mannerstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Now, of course, this canal is filled with much the same strangely fibrous substance—the spinal cord—as the brain; and directly communicates with the brain.
Chpt 79-81 (definition 1)directly = without anything in between
- Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda—indeed, by some supposed to be indirectly derived from it—is that famous story of St. George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale; for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together, and often stand for each other.
Chpt 82-84 (definition 2)indirectly = in a complicated, non-obvious mannerstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- It is certain that the mouth indirectly communicates with the spouting canal; but it cannot be proved that this is for the purpose of discharging water through the spiracle.
Chpt 85-87 (definition 2)
- So with stun-sail piled on stun-sail, we sailed along, driving these leviathans before us; when, of a sudden, the voice of Tashtego was heard, loudly directing attention to something in our wake.
Chpt 85-87 (definition 4)directing = focusing
- But not a bit daunted, Queequeg steered us manfully; now sheering off from this monster directly across our route in advance; now edging away from that, whose colossal flukes were suspended overhead, while all the time, Starbuck stood up in the bows, lance in hand, pricking out of our way whatever whales he could reach by short darts, for there was no time to make long ones.
Chpt 85-87 (definition 1)directly = straight (exactly where stated; used for emphasis)
- It frequently happens that when several ships are cruising in company, a whale may be struck by one vessel, then escape, and be finally killed and captured by another vessel; and herein are indirectly comprised many minor contingencies, all partaking of this one grand feature.
Chpt 88-90 (definition 2)indirectly = in a complicated, non-obvious mannerstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Holding the office directly from the crown, I believe, all the royal emoluments incident to the Cinque Port territories become by assignment his.
Chpt 88-90 (definition 1)directly = straight (without anything in between)
- Now in order to hold direct communication with the people on deck, he had to pull round the bows to the starboard side, and thus come close to the blasted whale; and so talk over it.
Chpt 91-93 (definition 1)direct = close
- I should like to conclude the chapter with the above appeal, but cannot, owing to my anxiety to repel a charge often made against whalemen, and which, in the estimation of some already biased minds, might be considered as indirectly substantiated by what has been said of the Frenchman's two whales.
Chpt 91-93 (definition 2)indirectly = in a complicated, non-obvious mannerstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Hereby perhaps Stubb indirectly hinted, that though man loved his fellow, yet man is a money-making animal, which propensity too often interferes with his benevolence.
Chpt 91-93 (definition 2)
- It was in the left hand try-pot of the Pequod, with the soapstone diligently circling round me, that I was first indirectly struck by the remarkable fact, that in geometry all bodies gliding along the cycloid, my soapstone for example, will descend from any point in precisely the same time.
Chpt 94-96 (definition 2)indirectly = incidentally (not the main thing being thought about)standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Removing the fire-board from the front of the try-works, the bare masonry of that side is exposed, penetrated by the two iron mouths of the furnaces, directly underneath the pots.
Chpt 94-96 (definition 1)directly = straight (exactly where stated; used for emphasis)
- There are no external chimneys; they open direct from the rear wall.
Chpt 94-96 (definition 1) *direct = straight (without anything in between)
- It has before been hinted, perhaps, that every little untoward circumstance that befell him, and which indirectly sprang from his luckless mishap, almost invariably irritated or exasperated Ahab.
Chpt 100-102 (definition 2)indirectly = in a complicated, non-obvious mannerstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in indirectly means not and reverses the meaning of directly. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Among the more curious of such remains is part of a skull, which in the year 1779 was disinterred in the Rue Dauphine in Paris, a short street opening almost directly upon the palace of the Tuileries; and bones disinterred in excavating the great docks of Antwerp, in Napoleon's time.
Chpt 103-105 (definition 1)directly = exactly
- Nor, at the time, had it failed to enter his monomaniac mind, that all the anguish of that then present suffering was but the direct issue of a former woe; and he too plainly seemed to see, that as the most poisonous reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind as inevitably as the sweetest songster of the grove; so, equally with every felicity, all miserable events do naturally beget their like.
Chpt 106-108 (definition 1)direct = straight (without anything in between)
- And when that functionary appeared before him, he bade him without delay set about making a new leg, and directed the mates to see him supplied with all the studs and joists of jaw-ivory (Sperm Whale) which had thus far been accumulated on the voyage, in order that a careful selection of the stoutest, clearest-grained stuff might be secured.
Chpt 106-108 (definition 5) *directed = ordered
- For not to speak of his readiness in ordinary duties:—repairing stove boats, sprung spars, reforming the shape of clumsy-bladed oars, inserting bull's eyes in the deck, or new tree-nails in the side planks, and other miscellaneous matters more directly pertaining to his special business; he was moreover unhesitatingly expert in all manner of conflicting aptitudes, both useful and capricious.
Chpt 106-108 (definition 1)directly = closely
- Towards evening of that day, the Pequod was torn of her canvas, and bare-poled was left to fight a Typhoon which had struck her directly ahead.
Chpt 118-120 (definition 1)directly = close, or in a straight line
- Holding by a shroud, Starbuck was standing on the quarter-deck; at every flash of the lightning glancing aloft, to see what additional disaster might have befallen the intricate hamper there; while Stubb and Flask were directing the men in the higher hoisting and firmer lashing of the boats.
Chpt 118-120 (definition 6) *directing = supervising
- The lost life-buoy was now to be replaced; Starbuck was directed to see to it; but as no cask of sufficient lightness could be found, and as in the feverish eagerness of what seemed the approaching crisis of the voyage, all hands were impatient of any toil but what was directly connected with its final end, whatever that might prove to be; therefore, they were going to leave the ship's stern unprovided with a buoy, when by certain strange signs and inuendoes Queequeg hinted a hint…
Chpt 124-126 (definition 5)directed = ordered
- Starbuck was directed to see to it; but as no cask of sufficient lightness could be found, and as in the feverish eagerness of what seemed the approaching crisis of the voyage, all hands were impatient of any toil but what was directly connected with its final end, whatever that might prove to be; therefore, they were going to leave the ship's stern unprovided with a buoy, when by certain strange signs and inuendoes Queequeg hinted a hint concerning his coffin.
Chpt 124-126 (definition 1)directly = closely (without anything in between)
- Next day, a large ship, the Rachel, was descried, bearing directly down upon the Pequod, all her spars thickly clustering with men.
Chpt 127-129 (definition 1)directly = straight (exactly where stated; used for emphasis)
Definitions:
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(1) (direct as in: directly above; or buy direct from) straight (exactly where stated); or without involvement of anything in betweenThe exact meaning of this sense of direct is subject to its context. For example:
- "The road runs directly to Las Vegas." -- straight (without varying from a straight line)
- "It was a direct hit." -- exact
- "The plant is in direct sunlight." -- unobstructed (without anything in between)
- "She wants a direct meeting with him." -- personal (without other people in between)
- "She paid direct attention to what he was reading." -- close
- "a direct gaze" -- straight, steady, or focused--not a brief glance taken while generally looking at other things; not a sideways look
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(2) (direct as in: was direct in my instructions) straightforward (uncomplicated or simple -- perhaps also indicating openness and honesty, or little concern for others' feelings)
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(3) (direct as in: depart directly) without delay, or in the quickest manner, or without going somewhere else firsteditor's notes: You may see the term direct flight used in a technical manner that is not as quick as a non-stop flight. In technical usage, a direct flight from Los Angeles to New York could stop at a city on the way, but you would not get off the plane during the stop.
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(4) (direct as in: directed her question to) to indicate direction; or to cause movement or focus in a direction or towards an objectThe exact meaning of this sense of direct is subject to its context. For example:
- "intentionally directed fire at unarmed civilians" -- aimed a gun
- "directed the question to her" -- aimed a question
- "directed her north" -- pointed in a particular direction
- "directed attention to the 3rd paragraph" -- focused attention on a particular object
- "The sound of her voice directed him to the kitchen." -- guided or gave directions to someone to help them move to a particular place
- "She directed him to the airport." -- gave directions to send someone to a particular place
- "She directed the boat north." -- steered it
- "directed the letter to" -- send a letter to a particular person by putting a name and address on it
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(5) (direct as in: directed the jury to...) give instructions or commands
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(6) (direct as in: directed the movie) supervise, control, or to be in charge of