All 46 Uses

direct
in
Flags of Our Fathers
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Six months younger than Ira, Jack Bradley was a recent high-school graduate and apprenticing his way to a Wisconsin funeral director's license.†
Chpt 4.

standard suffix: The suffix "-or" often converts a verb to a noun that means "a person who." This is the pattern you see in words like actor, editor, and visitor.
He met Jean in her office at the Sunny Glen Orphanage, associated with the Church of Christ; Jean was executive secretary to the director there.†
Chpt 4.
Two-thousand-pound bombs hitting directly on them might have partially destroyed them, but bombing is not that accurate—not even dive bombing.†
Chpt 4.

directly = exactly where stated (used for emphasis)
Bill Ranous was directly behind him, and collided with him when Harlon stopped abruptly.†
Chpt 7.

directly = close, or in a straight line
Lindberg and Goode arose with their deadly flamethrowers and, ignoring the sheets of fire directed at them, stalked toward the pillbox.†
Chpt 9. *

directed = aimed, or intended for
And all the while he just looked at me, he looked directly into my face.†
Chpt 9.

directly = straight (exactly where stated; used for emphasis)
Campbell walked away and moved into position a short distance down the hillside, almost directly below the first flag, so that he could shoot upward at it as the Marines took it down.†
Chpt 11.

directly = close, or in a straight line
The gunfire directed at them was intermittent but deadly.†
Chpt 13.

directed = aimed, or intended for
People always ask what it was like being a funeral director's son: Did you see a lot of dead bodies?†
Chpt 14.

standard suffix: The suffix "-or" often converts a verb to a noun that means "a person who." This is the pattern you see in words like actor, editor, and visitor.
But then, John Bradley was the funeral director of choice for counties around.†
Chpt 14.
Looking down from the cockpit of the plane he had named after his mother, the pilot ruminated that the horrendous battle had been worth its costs: "The island, which had become Japan's prime defensive outpost, lay directly on the route our bombers flew on their mission from the Marianas to Tokyo.†
Chpt 17.

directly = exactly where stated (used for emphasis)
The studio chief, Herbert Yates, "nearly had heart failure" at the prospect of such an investment, as the director, Allan Dwan, recalled it.†
Chpt 18.

standard suffix: The suffix "-or" often converts a verb to a noun that means "a person who." This is the pattern you see in words like actor, editor, and visitor.
President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon sat on the speakers' stage, along with the Secretary of Defense, General H. M. "Howlin' Mad" Smith, and former Commandant Vandegrift—who found himself staring directly at Ira Hayes in the front row facing the monument.†
Chpt 18. *

directly = straight (exactly where stated; used for emphasis)
Many of the stories noted that the only remaining survivor among the six flagraisers was John Bradley, fifty-six, a funeral director in Antigo, Wisconsin.†
Chpt 19.

standard suffix: The suffix "-or" often converts a verb to a noun that means "a person who." This is the pattern you see in words like actor, editor, and visitor.
Next I pointed to the figure directly in back of my father.†
Chpt 1.
A particular category of businessmen caught his eye at church: the funeral directors of Appleton.†
Chpt 2.
The reason, he quickly came to understand, involved service: The funeral directors were not merely men selling a commodity; other than clergy, they were the ones most intimately in touch with the townspeople in their times of sorrow and need.†
Chpt 2.
Little did he realize it would lead him directly to one of history's bloodiest battles.†
Chpt 2.
That epoch indirectly shaped much of the boy's sense of himself in relation to the world.†
Chpt 2.

indirectly = not in a straightforward manner (complicated, incidental, or unintentional)

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.
Then a week later in another jump Harlon told me he was floating down and had to spread his legs to avoid landing directly on his watch!†
Chpt 4.
There are few direct accounts of what Mike, Ira, and Harlon experienced on Bougainville.†
Chpt 4.
The Navy admiral directing the bombardment even promised he would "obliterate" the island.†
Chpt 4.
He directed the boy to the nearest officer in charge of records.†
Chpt 5.
Some of the veterans and older field officers, who can relate map symbols to direct personal experience, draw back in disbelief.†
Chpt 6.
Athwart the direct path to Japan, the island was almost exactly halfway between the Marianas and Japan and boasted two airstrips and a radar station.†
Chpt 6.
General Kuribayashi himself would direct the battle from his command center, a bombproof capsule that was seventy-five feet below the surface.†
Chpt 6.
The only way the cave kamikaze could be overcome was by direct frontal assault, young American boys walking straight into Japanese fields of fire.†
Chpt 6.
The surgeon had built his hospital directly atop the enemy.†
Chpt 7.
The winter sun, which had emerged from the clouds late in the day, had now sunk behind the mountain, and the Marines of Easy moved directly into its giant shadow.†
Chpt 8.
Pennel directed the driver to back the tank until it straddled the men, who were then pulled inside through the escape-hatch door.†
Chpt 8.
At eight-thirty A.M. a thin line of unprotected American boys would arise and rush directly at the most fortified mountain in the history of the world.†
Chpt 9.
Soaked with blood, nearly immobilized by pain, Keith Wells continued to direct the 3rd Platoon's attack through the late morning.†
Chpt 9.
Wells willed himself to stay in the field another half hour, directing assault groups and rallying his men.†
Chpt 9.
He sprinted back, through fire, to the nearest tank, and, still out in the open, directed its fire against the stubborn pillboxes.†
Chpt 9.
Liversedge had known Schrier when they served in the Marine Raiders together, admired his combat experience, and valued the lieutenant's knowledge of how to direct air, artillery, and naval fire by radio.†
Chpt 11.
Mike directed Ira and Franklin to look for a length of pipe.†
Chpt 11.
Schrier rounded up some Marines to lower the first pole, and then stood between the two clusters of flag groups, directing them.†
Chpt 11.
Doc dropped the bandages and moved to the pole, directly between Mike and Harlon.†
Chpt 11.
Each drive included newspaper and radio ads, direct mailing, and, as its centerpiece, a coast-to-coast barnstorming show featuring celebrities, war heroes, marching bands, and patriotic orators.†
Chpt 15.
A waiting car rushed him directly to Marine Corps Headquarters.†
Chpt 15.
"When I found out, I was so sad," she told me in her direct, plainspoken way.†
Chpt 15.
Ira stared stonily at him for a moment, then inquired, with a terrible directness, "What do you want?"†
Chpt 15. *
Blockades and carpet-bombing were quickly ruled out: Clearly, the malignant Japanese war machine would capitulate only to direct and cataclysmic force.†
Chpt 17.
He had no hidden agendas; he expressed himself directly.†
Chpt 20.
Instead, he looked me directly in my nine-year-old eyes signaling that he'd like to embed an idea in my brain for the rest of my life.†
Chpt 20.
I and your grandchildren Ava and Jack were watching Clint Eastwood direct Ryan Phillippe as he played you—Doc Bradley—in the movie Flags of Our Fathers.†
Chpt Aft.

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Grouped by 3 Meanings

Definitions:

(1) (direct as in: directly above; or buy direct)
without anything in between -- whether in time, space, or involvement
(2) (direct as in: gave a direct answer)
straightforward -- often clear, open, or blunt in speech or behavior
(3) (direct as in: direct a question; or direct a film)
to guide, aim, or manage -- such as actions, attention, speech, a project or company
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Direct can take on many specialized meanings not included in this dictionary.
As an adjective or adverb, direct usually means there is a clear or straight connection with nothing in the way. It can also mean easy to understand, without confusion. For example:
- Direct action – taking quick and clear steps to make something happen
- Direct descendant – someone who comes straight from an ancestor, like a grandchild
- Direct line (in genealogy) – a family connection that goes straight from one generation to the next
- Direct deposit – money that is sent straight into a bank account
- Direct object – in a sentence, the person or thing that receives the action of the verb
- Direct kick – in sports, a kick where the ball can go straight into the goal without touching another player
- Direct cost – a cost that comes straight from making a product or providing a service
- Direct investment – putting money directly into a company or project
- Direct elections – when people vote for leaders without going through an extra step
- Direct current (DC) – a type of electric flow that moves in only one direction
As a verb, most all of the senses of direct involve giving orders or aiming.

direct in Flags of Our Fathers (Auto-generated)

direct
in
Flags of Our Fathers
(Auto-generated)