Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Direction

Di·rec′tion (dĭ·rĕk′shŭn), n. [L. directio: cf. F. direction.] 1. The act of directing, of aiming, regulating, guiding, or ordering; guidance; management; superintendence; administration; as, the direction of public affairs or of a bank.

I do commit his youth To your direction. Shak.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee; ll chance, direction, which thou canst not see. Pope.

2. That which is imposed by directing; a guiding or authoritative instruction; prescription; order; command; as, he grave directions to the servants.

The princes digged the well . . . by the direction of the law giver. Numb. xxi. 18.

3. The name and residence of a person to whom any thing is sent, written upon the thing sent; superscription; address; as, the direction of a letter.

4. The line or course upon which anything is moving or aimed to move, or in which anything is lying or pointing; aim; line or point of tendency; direct line or course; as, the ship sailed in a southeasterly direction.

5. The body of managers of a corporation or enterprise; board of directors.

6. (Gun.) The pointing of a piece with reference to an imaginary vertical axis; — distinguished from elevation. The direction is given when the plane of sight passes through the object. Wilhelm.

Syn. — Administration; guidance; management; superintendence; oversight; government; order; command; guide; clew. Direction, Control, Command, Order. These words, as here compared, have reference to the exercise of power over the actions of others. Control is negative, denoting power to restrain; command is positive, implying a right to enforce obedience; directions are commands containing instructions how to act. Order conveys more prominently the idea of authority than the word direction. A shipmaster has the command of his vessel; he gives orders or directions to the seamen as to the mode of sailing it; and exercises a due control over the passengers.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.