Direct \Di*rect"\, a. (Political Science) Pertaining to, or effected immediately by, action of the people through their votes instead of through one or more representatives or delegates; as, direct nomination, direct legislation.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Demonstration \Dem`on*stra"tion\, n. [L. demonstratio: cf. F. d['e]monstration.]

1. The act of demonstrating; an exhibition; proof; especially, proof beyond the possibility of doubt; indubitable evidence, to the senses or reason.

Those intervening ideas which serve to show the agreement of any two others are called ``proofs;'' and where agreement or disagreement is by this means plainly and clearly perceived, it is called demonstration. --Locke.

2. An expression, as of the feelings, by outward signs; a manifestation; a show.

Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief? --Shak.

Loyal demonstrations toward the prince. --Prescott.

3. (Anat.) The exhibition and explanation of a dissection or other anatomical preparation.

4. (Mil.) a decisive exhibition of force, or a movement indicating an attack.

5. (Logic) The act of proving by the syllogistic process, or the proof itself.

6. (Math.) A course of reasoning showing that a certain result is a necessary consequence of assumed premises; -- these premises being definitions, axioms, and previously established propositions.

Direct, or Positive, demonstration (Logic & Math.), one in which the correct conclusion is the immediate sequence of reasoning from axiomatic or established premises; -- opposed to

Indirect, or Negative, demonstration (called also reductio ad absurdum), in which the correct conclusion is an inference from the demonstration that any other hypothesis must be incorrect.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Tax \Tax\, n. [F. taxe, fr. taxer to tax, L. taxare to touch, sharply, to feel, handle, to censure, value, estimate, fr. tangere, tactum, to touch. See Tangent, and cf. Task, Taste.]

1. A charge, especially a pecuniary burden which is imposed by authority. Specifically:
   (a) A charge or burden laid upon persons or property for the support of a government.

A farmer of taxes is, of all creditors, proverbially the most rapacious. --Macaulay.
   (b) Especially, the sum laid upon specific things, as upon polls, lands, houses, income, etc.; as, a land tax; a window tax; a tax on carriages, and the like.

Note: Taxes are annual or perpetual, direct or indirect, etc.
   (c) A sum imposed or levied upon the members of a society to defray its expenses.

2. A task exacted from one who is under control; a contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed upon a subject.

3. A disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; as, a heavy tax on time or health.

4. Charge; censure. [Obs.]

--Clarendon.

5. A lesson to be learned; a task. [Obs.]

--Johnson.

Tax cart, a spring cart subject to a low tax. [Eng.]

Syn: Impost; tribute; contribution; duty; toll; rate; assessment; exaction; custom; demand.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Direct \Di*rect"\, a. [L. directus, p. p. of dirigere to direct: cf. F. direct. See Dress, and cf. Dirge.]

1. Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means.

What is direct to, what slides by, the question. --Locke.

2. Straightforward; not of crooked ways, or swerving from truth and openness; sincere; outspoken.

Be even and direct with me. --Shak.

3. Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.

He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words. --Locke.

A direct and avowed interference with elections. --Hallam.

4. In the line of descent; not collateral; as, a descendant in the direct line.

5. (Astron.) In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; -- said of the motion of a celestial body.

Direct action. (Mach.) See Direct-acting.

Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said ``I can not come;'' -- correlative to indirect discourse, in which there is change of form; as, he said that he could not come. They are often called respectively by their Latin names, oratio directa, and oratio obliqua.

Direct evidence (Law), evidence which is positive or not inferential; -- opposed to circumstantial, or indirect, evidence. -- This distinction, however, is merely formal, since there is no direct evidence that is not circumstantial, or dependent on circumstances for its credibility. --Wharton.

Direct examination (Law), the first examination of a witness in the orderly course, upon the merits. --Abbott.

Direct fire (Mil.), fire, the direction of which is perpendicular to the line of troops or to the parapet aimed at.

Direct process (Metal.), one which yields metal in working condition by a single process from the ore. --Knight.

Direct tax, a tax assessed directly on lands, etc., and polls, distinguished from taxes on merchandise, or customs, and from excise.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Direct \Di*rect"\, v. i. To give direction; to point out a course; to act as guide.

Wisdom is profitable to direct. --Eccl. x. 10.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Direct \Di*rect"\, n. (Mus.) A character, thus [?], placed at the end of a staff on the line or space of the first note of the next staff, to apprise the performer of its situation. --Moore (Encyc. of Music).

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Direct \Di*rect"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Directed; p. pr. & vb. n. Directing.]

1. To arrange in a direct or straight line, as against a mark, or towards a goal; to point; to aim; as, to direct an arrow or a piece of ordnance.

2. To point out or show to (any one), as the direct or right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way; as, he directed me to the left-hand road.

The Lord direct your into the love of God. --2 Thess. iii. 5.

The next points to which I will direct your attention. --Lubbock.

3. To determine the direction or course of; to cause to go on in a particular manner; to order in the way to a certain end; to regulate; to govern; as, to direct the affairs of a nation or the movements of an army.

I will direct their work in truth. --Is. lxi. 8.

4. To point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order; as, he directed them to go.

I 'll first direct my men what they shall do. --Shak.

5. To put a direction or address upon; to mark with the name and residence of the person to whom anything is sent; to superscribe; as, to direct a letter.

Syn: To guide; lead; conduct; dispose; manage; regulate; order; instruct; command.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)