23 uses
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1 —3 uses as in:
directed her question to
Definition
to indicate direction; or to cause movement or focus in a direction or towards an object
The 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
- But it is usually a sort of melodramatic or mythical hatred directed against imaginary scapegoats.Chapter 6 (61% in)
- In his anguish, the patient can, of course, be encouraged to revenge himself by some vindictive feelings directed towards the German leaders, and that is good so far as it goes.Chapter 6 (58% in)
- Thus we make it fashionable to expose the dangers of enthusiasm at the very moment when they are all really becoming worldly and lukewarm; a century later, when we are really making them all Byronic and drunk with emotion, the fashionable outcry is directed against the dangers of the mere "understanding".Chapter 25 (69% in)
There are no more uses of "direct" flagged with this meaning in The Screwtape Letters.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —20 uses
exact meaning not specified
- In the first place they all tend to direct men's devotion to something which does not exist, for each "historical Jesus" is unhistorical.Chapter 23 (29% in)
- Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones.Chapter 3 (19% in)
- The humans do not start from that direct perception of Him which we, unhappily, cannot avoid.Chapter 4 (61% in)
- For if he ever comes to make the distinction, if ever he consciously directs his prayers "Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be", our situation is, for the moment, desperate.Chapter 4 (86% in)
- For real resignation, at the same moment, to a dozen different and hypothetical fates, is almost impossible, and the Enemy does not greatly assist those who are trying to attain it: resignation to present and actual suffering, even where that suffering consists of fear, is far easier and is usually helped by this direct action.Chapter 6 (31% in)
- The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know.Chapter 6 (73% in)
- When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all he pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians.Chapter 7 (9% in)
- This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change.Chapter 8 (12% in)
- You have only got to keep him out of the way of experienced Christians (an easy task now-a-days), to direct his attention to the appropriate passages in scripture, and then to set him to work on the desperate design of recovering his old feelings by sheer willpower, and the game is ours.Chapter 9 (63% in)
- Another possibility is that of direct attack on his faith.Chapter 9 (78% in)
- No doubt he must very soon realise that his own faith is in direct opposition to the assumptions on which all the conversation of his new friends is based.Chapter 10 (24% in)
- Besides, the phenomenon is of itself disgusting and a direct insult to the realism, dignity, and austerity of Hell.Chapter 11 (27% in)
- It is the Enemy's most barbarous weapon, and generally appears when He is directly present to the patient under certain modes not yet fully classified.Chapter 13 (14% in)
- XX MY DEAR WORMWOOD, I note with great displeasure that the Enemy has, for the time being, put a forcible end to your direct attacks on the patient's chastity.Chapter 20 (2% in)
- At one time we have directed it to the statuesque and aristocratic type of beauty, mixing men's vanity with their desires and encouraging the race to breed chiefly from the most arrogant and prodigal women.Chapter 20 (34% in)
- As a result we are more and more directing the desires of men to something which does not exist-making the rÃīle of the eye in sexuality more and more important and at the same time making its demands more and more impossible.Chapter 20 (59% in)
- You will have failed as regards fornication and solitary vice; but there are other, and more indirect, methods of using a man's sexuality to his undoing.Chapter 20 (96% in)
- We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic.Chapter 25 (59% in)
- On the seemingly pious ground that "praise and communion with God is the true prayer", humans can often be lured into direct disobedience to the Enemy who (in His usual flat, commonplace, uninteresting way) has definitely told them to pray for their daily bread and the recovery of their sick.Chapter 27 (22% in)
- If we promoted justice and charity among men, we should be playing directly into the Enemy's hands; but if we guide them to the opposite behaviour, this sooner or later produces (for He permits it to produce) a war or a revolution, and the undisguisable issue of cowardice or courage awakes thousands of men from moral stupor.Chapter 29 (50% in)
There are no more uses of "direct" in The Screwtape Letters.
Typical Usage
(best examples)