3 meanings, 21 uses
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1 —2 uses as in:
depart directly
Definition
without delay, or in the quickest manner, or without going somewhere else first
- But that never happened, and eventually she succeeded in teaching him to respond to our voices and come directly after the stoop for the hand-fed meat.Chapter 15 (90% in)
- Now he was no longer second-to-last, but the last and end-term of his family; there was nobody expected to die before he did, and, you could say, troubles came directly to his face, and he showed the test of them.Chapter 7 (71% in)
There are no more uses of "direct" flagged with this meaning in The Adventures of Augie March.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
2 —2 uses as in:
directly above; or buy direct from
Definition
straight (exactly where stated); or without involvement of anything in between
The 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
- But Hooker Frazer was Mimi Villars' man, and, seeing them together on the stairs of Owens' house, I admired them, both made so well, she hard and spirited, editing her words for no one, and he so distinct-looking he might have been lineally direct from Cro-Magnon man—but of course with present-day differences, including the disorders.Chapter 11 (12% in)
- With her Russian facial angle and pale eyes, placed low and denying you a direct glance, she had the look of an older woman.Chapter 4 (27% in)
There are no more uses of "direct" flagged with this meaning in The Adventures of Augie March.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
3 —6 uses as in:
directed the movie
Definition
supervise, control, or to be in charge of
- The director and his wife boasted that they fed their people well; it was a fact that you knew the next menu in advance by the smell of the kitchen.Chapter 11 (95% in)
Other Uses (with this meaning)
- He was tough with the director, who hoped to get mattresses wholesale from Arthur Magnus through him.Chapter 11 (95% in)
- It was the director's wife who came, in her house dress.Chapter 11 (97% in)
- She spilled coffee on it," the director's wife explained.Chapter 11 (98% in)
- Not that he really distrusted the director and his wife; he wanted them, however, to realize that he did not have to depend on their honesty.Chapter 11 (99% in)
- There were Greek and Negro chambermaids from all the hotels, porters, doormen, checkroom attendants, waitresses, specialists like the director of the garde-manger from flossy Gold Coast joints, places where I had gone with the dog-wagon and so understood a little.Chapter 13 (15% in)
There are no more uses of "direct" flagged with this meaning in The Adventures of Augie March.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —11 uses
exact meaning not specified
- Direct, without game, not even nickel phrases of circumlocution.Chapter 11 (87% in)
- ...over us, bald, whiskery, with a fat nose, greatly armored in a cutaway, a double-breasted vest, powerfully buttoned (his blue photo, enlarged and retouched by Mr. Lulov, hung in the parlor, doubled back between the portico columns of the full-length mirror, the dome of the stove beginning where his trunk ended)—she preferred to live with us, because for so many years she was used to direct a house, to command, to govern, to manage, scheme, devise, and intrigue in all her languages.Chapter 1 (20% in)
- She was directing me out of her deep chest to the great eternal things.Chapter 2 (**% in)
- She made no fuss or noise nor was seen weeping, but in an extreme and terrible way seemed to be watching out the kitchen window, until you came close and saw the tear-strengthened color of her green eyes and of her pink face, her gap-toothed mouth; she laid her head on the wing of the chair sideways, never direct.Chapter 4 (70% in)
- The force that directs these things in us higher beings and brings together lovers to bear the genius that will lead the world a step or two of the slow march toward its perfection, or find the note that will reach the ear of the banded multitude and encourage it to take that step, had come across with a Georgie instead, and with us.Chapter 4 (94% in)
- He had a brain and many enterprises, real directing power, philosophical capacity, and if I were methodical enough to take thought before an important and practical decision and also (N.B.)* if I were really his disciple and not what I am, I'd ask myself, "What would Caesar suffer in this case?Chapter 5 (0% in)
- He needed to be pleased, and she was willing, asking only in return that he stop spitting on the floor, and that not of him directly, being too shy, but through her husband, to him it was merely a joking matter.Chapter 5 (17% in)
- He hoped to be more severe than he could be, and I expect his trouble was that he was really not the man to direct a snazzy operation.Chapter 8 (8% in)
- No, I didn't want to, for I knew what it would be like: between two hefty detectives and probably trying to tip his hat over his eyes as much as his held arms would allow, and spare his family direct eyes into the camera, or his plastered face.Chapter 10 (18% in)
- " "Now or ever," he directed.Chapter 12 (91% in)
- He did it with heaviness, and, while I watched and wished him the worst, stretched out those doughty big legs and that bowl of tireless contemplations from which the instructions had come to lam me and leave me tied for the night, and which might direct him to do worse yet.Chapter 25 (93% in)
There are no more uses of "direct" in The Adventures of Augie March.
Typical Usage
(best examples)