1. indirect(s = adj.all) - having intervening factors or persons or influences; "reflection from the ceiling provided a soft indirect light"; "indirect evidence"; "an indirect cause"
2. indirect(a = adj.all) - not direct in spatial dimension; not leading by a straight line or course to a destination; "sometimes taking an indirect path saves time"; "you must take an indirect course in sailing"
Antonym: direct
Derived form noun indirectness1
3. indirect(a = adj.all) collateral - descended from a common ancestor but through different lines; "cousins are collateral relatives"; "an indirect descendant of the Stuarts"
4. indirect(a = adj.all) - extended senses; not direct in manner or language or behavior or action; "making indirect but legitimate inquiries"; "an indirect insult"; "doubtless they had some indirect purpose in mind"; "though his methods are indirect they are not dishonest"; "known as a shady indirect fellow"
Antonym: direct
5. indirect(s = adj.all) - not as a direct effect or consequence; "indirect benefits"; "an indirect advantage"
Derived form noun indirectness1
1. Not direct; not straight or rectilinear; deviating from a direct line or course; circuitous; as, an indirect road. [1913 Webster]
2. Not tending to an aim, purpose, or result by the plainest course, or by obvious means, but obliquely or consequentially; by remote means; as, an indirect accusation, attack, answer, or proposal. [1913 Webster]
"By what bypaths and indirect, crooked ways
I met this crown." [1913 Webster]
3. Not straightforward or upright; unfair; dishonest; tending to mislead or deceive. [1913 Webster]
"Indirect dealing will be discovered one time or other." [1913 Webster]
4. Not resulting directly from an act or cause, but more or less remotely connected with or growing out of it; as, indirect results, damages, or claims. [1913 Webster]
5. Not reaching the end aimed at by the most plain and direct method; as, an indirect proof, demonstration, etc. [1913 Webster]
indirect, adj.
1 not going straight to the point.
2 (of a route etc.) not straight.
3 not directly sought or aimed at (an indirect result).
4 (of lighting) from a concealed source and diffusely reflected.
Idiom:
indirect object Gram. a person or thing affected by a verbal action but not primarily acted on (e.g. him in give him the book). indirect question Gram. a question in reported speech (e.g. they asked who I was). indirect speech (or oration) = reported speech (see REPORT). indirect tax a tax levied on goods and services and not on income or profits.
Derivative:
indirectly adv. indirectness n.
Etymology:
ME f. OF indirect or med.L indirectus (as IN-(1), DIRECT)
N circuit, roundabout way, digression, detour, circumbendibus, ambages, loop, winding, zigzag, circuitous, indirect, roundabout, zigzag, backhanded, by a side wind, by an indirect course, in a roundabout way, from pillar to post.
N deviation, swerving, obliquation, warp, refraction, flection, flexion, sweep, deflection, deflexure, declination, diversion, digression, depart from, aberration, divergence, zigzag, detour, divagation, wandering, vagrancy, evagation, bypaths and crooked ways, byroad, sidling, knight's move at chess, deviating, aberrant, errant, excursive, discursive, devious, desultory, loose, rambling, stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag, crab-like, astray from, round about, wide of the mark, to the right about, all manner of ways, circuitously, obliquely, sideling, like the move of the knight on a chessboard.
N latency, implication, latency, inexpression, hidden meaning, occult meaning, occultness, mystery, cabala, anagoge, silence, concealment, more than meets the eye, more than meets the ear, Delphic oracle, le dessous des cartes, undercurrent, implication, logical implication, logical consequence, entailment, allusion, insinuation, innuendo, adumbration, something rotten in the state of Denmark, snake in the grass, secret, darkness, invisibility, imperceptibility, latent, lurking, secret, occult, implied, dormant, abeyant, unapparent, unknown, unseen, in the background, invisible, indiscoverable, dark, impenetrable, unspied, unsuspected, unsaid, unwritten, unpublished, unbreathed, untalked of, untold &c, unsung, unexposed, unproclaimed, undisclosed, unexpressed, not expressed, tacit, undeveloped, solved, unexplained, untraced, undiscovered, untracked, unexplored, uninvented, indirect, crooked, inferential, by inference, by implication, implicit, constructive, allusive, covert, muffled, steganographic, understood, underhand, underground, delitescent, concealed, by a side wind, sub silentio, in the background, behind the scenes, behind one's back, on the tip of one's tongue, secretly, between the lines, thereby hangs a tale, tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus, where there's smoke, there's fire.
indirect antonym, indirect correlation, indirect discourse, indirect evidence, indirect expression, indirect fire, indirect immunofluorescence, indirect lighting, indirect object, indirect request, indirect tax, indirect transmission