DIRECTLY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Directly

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/dərˈɛktli/ /dɪrˈɛkli/ /daɪrˈɛkli/ Listen

adverb

Directly adv.

1.

In a direct manner; in a straight line or course. "To run directly on." "Indirectly and directly too Thou hast contrived against the very life Of the defendant."

2.

In a straightforward way; without anything intervening; not by secondary, but by direct, means.

3.

Without circumlocution or ambiguity; absolutely; in express terms. "No man hath hitherto been so impious as plainly and directly to condemn prayer."

4.

Exactly; just. "Stand you directly in Antonius' way."

5.

Straightforwardly; honestly. "I have dealt most directly in thy affair."

6.

Manifestly; openly. (Obs.) "Desdemona is directly in love with him."

7.

Straightway; next in order; without delay; immediately. "Will she go now to bed? 'Directly.'"

8.

Immediately after; as soon as. "Directly he stopped, the coffin was removed." Note: This use of the word is common in England, especially in colloquial speech, but it can hardly be regarded as a well-sanctioned or desirable use.

Directly proportional (Math.), proportional in the order of the terms; increasing or decreasing together, and with a constant ratio; opposed to inversely proportional.

Synonyms: Immediately; forthwith; straightway; instantly; instantaneously; soon; promptly; openly; expressly. Directly, Immediately, Instantly, Instantaneously. Directly denotes, without any delay or diversion of attention; immediately implies, without any interposition of other occupation; instantly implies, without any intervention of time. Hence, "I will do it directly," means, "I will go straightway about it." "I will do it immediately," means, "I will do it as the very next thing." "I will do it instantly," allows not a particle of delay. Instantaneously, like instantly, marks an interval too small to be appreciable, but commonly relates to physical causes; as, the powder touched by fire instantaneously exploded.

See images of 'Directly'

Etymology of 'Directly'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Directly" Quotes from Famous Books

... energy into the effort of his arm, and threw back the weapon at his assailant. The unexpectedness of this blow contributed to its success, the Panther neither raising an arm, nor bending his head to avoid it. The keen little axe struck the victim in a perpendicular line with the nose, directly between the eyes, literally braining him on the spot. Sallying forward, as the serpent darts at its enemy even while receiving its own death wound, this man of powerful frame fell his length into the open area formed by the circle, quivering in death. A common ...

— The Deerslayer • James Fenimore Cooper

... grace to blush. Bobby, who was fond of books but whose taste ran to "Rules for Basketball" and "How to Gain Health Through Exercise," had put up a small shelf directly over her bed to hold her literary treasures. Libbie, exhausting the space in her tiny corner bookcase had thoughtlessly placed the two heavy volumes of the story Bobby mentioned on top of her cousin's books with the awful ...

— Betty Gordon at Boarding School - The Treasure of Indian Chasm • Alice Emerson

... of crime and remorse with which the First Part closes. He needs a new Faust for whom that is all past—past, not in the sense of being lightly forgotten, but built into his character and remembered, say, as one remembers the ecstasy and the pain of twenty years ago. So he ushers him directly into the new life over a bridge of symbolism. The restoring process which in real life takes many years he concentrates into a single night and represents it as the work of kindly nocturnal fairies and ...

— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... ways obstructed the company's operations. In all these disputes the German government countenanced its own subjects, while the British foreign office did little or nothing to assist the company, sometimes directly discouraging its activity. Moreover, the company had agreed by the concession of October 1888 to pay a high revenue to the sultan—Bargash had died in the preceding March and the Germans were pressing his successor to give them a grant of Lamu—in lieu of the customs collected ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various

... within) I shall be back directly, if I find out what I want to know from these fellows. (to overseers) Where are those prisoners I had brought out in front of ...

— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com