different between direct vs convey

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?rectus, perfect passive participle of d?rig? (“straighten, direct”), from dis- (“asunder, in pieces, apart, in two”) + reg? (“make straight, rule”). Compare dress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d(a)????kt/, /d????kt/, /da??????kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt
• Hyphenation: di?rect

Adjective

direct (comparative more direct, superlative most direct)

1. Proceeding without deviation or interruption.
2. Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end.

3. Straightforward; sincere.
4. Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.

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

   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     a direct and avowed interference with elections

5. In the line of descent; not collateral.

6. (astronomy) 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.
7. (political science) Pertaining to, or effected immediately by, action of the people through their votes instead of through one or more representatives or delegates.

8. (aviation, travel) having a single flight number.

Synonyms

• (proceeding uninterrupted): immediate
• (express, plain, unambiguous): explicit, patent, univocal; see also Thesaurus:explicit

Antonyms

• indirect

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

direct (comparative more direct, superlative most direct)

1. Directly.
   • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate 2010, p. 346:

     Presumably Mary is to carry messages that she, Anne, is too delicate to convey direct.

Verb

direct (third-person singular simple present directs, present participle directing, simple past and past participle directed)

1. To manage, control, steer.

   to direct the affairs of a nation or the movements of an army

2. To aim (something) at (something else).

   They directed their fire towards the men on the wall.

   He directed his question to the room in general.

3. To point out or show to (somebody) the right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way.

   He directed me to the left-hand road.

   • 1882, John Lubbock, Flowers, Fruits and Leaves

     the next points to which I will direct your attention

4. To point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order.

   She directed them to leave immediately.
5. (dated) To put a direction or address upon; to mark with the name and residence of the person to whom anything is sent.

   to direct a letter

Derived terms

• co-direct, codirect
• misdirect
• redirect

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Credit, credit, triced

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French direct, from Latin d?r?ctus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di?r?kt/
• Hyphenation: di?rect
• Rhymes: -?kt

Adjective

direct (comparative directer, superlative directst)

1. direct, immediate
2. direct, blunt, frank

Inflection

Adverb

direct

1. immediately

Synonyms

• onmiddellijk
• meteen
• rechtstreeks

Derived terms

• drek

Descendants

• Afrikaans: direk
• ? Papiamentu: dirèkt

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.??kt/
• Homophones: directe, directes, directs

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin d?rectus. Doublet of droit, which was inherited.

Adjective

direct (feminine singular directe, masculine plural directs, feminine plural directes)

1. direct

Etymology 2

From directement.

Adverb

direct

1. (colloquial) directly

   Si t'as pas envie d'y aller, dis-le direct.

   • 'If you don't want to go, say it straight up.'

Derived terms

Related terms

• diriger
• directeur
• direction

See also

• droit

Anagrams

• crédit
• décrit
• dicter

Further reading

• “direct” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin d?rectus, perfect passive participle of d?rig?, d?rigere (“straighten, direct”). Compare the inherited drait, drouait.

Adjective

direct m

1. (Jersey) direct

Derived terms

• directément (“directly”)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French direct, Latin directus. Compare the inherited doublet drept.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di?rekt/

Adjective

direct m or n (feminine singular direct?, masculine plural direc?i, feminine and neuter plural directe)

1. direct
2. head-on

Declension

Adverb

direct

1. directly
2. straight

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French conveier (French French convoyer), from Vulgar Latin *convio, from Classical Latin via (“way”). Compare convoy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?ve?/
• Rhymes: -e?

Verb

convey (third-person singular simple present conveys, present participle conveying, simple past and past participle conveyed)

1. To move (something) from one place to another.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, 1 Kings 5:8-9,^[1]

     […] I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there […]

   • 1858, Henry Gray, London: John W. Parker & Son, “Female Organs of Generation,” p. 688,^[2]

     The Fallopian Tubes, or oviducts, convey the ova from the ovaries to the cavity of the uterus.
2. (dated) To take or carry (someone) from one place to another.
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act II, Scene 1,^[3]

     Convey me to my bed, then to my grave:

     Love they to live that love and honour have.

   • 1717, Samuel Croxall (translator), Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books, Translated by the Most Eminent Hands, London: Jacob Tonson, Book the Sixth, p. 200,^[4]

     […] the false Tyrant seiz’d the Princely Maid,

     And to a Lodge in distant Woods convey’d;

   • 1817, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Chapter 19,^[5]

     It began to rain, not much, but enough to make shelter desirable for women, and quite enough to make it very desirable for Miss Elliot to have the advantage of being conveyed home in Lady Dalrymple’s carriage, which was seen waiting at a little distance […]

3. To communicate; to make known; to portray.
   • 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London: Thomas Basset, Book III, Chapter 9, p. 232,^[6]

     To make Words serviceable to the end of Communication is necessary […] that they excite, in the Hearer, exactly the same Idea they stand for, in the Mind of the Speaker: Without this, Men fill one another’s Heads with noise and sounds; but convey not thereby their Thoughts, and lay not before one another their Ideas, which is the end of Discourse and Language.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 7, Chapter 6, p. 27,^[7]

     This excellent Method of conveying a Falshood with the Heart only, without making the Tongue guilty of an Untruth, by the Means of Equivocation and Imposture, hath quieted the Conscience of many a notable Deceiver […]

   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Chapter 3,^[8]

     I am afraid I cannot convey the peculiar sensations of time travelling.

   • 1927, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, Chapter 1,^[9]

     To her son these words conveyed an extraordinary joy, as if it were settled, the expedition were bound to take place, and the wonder to which he had looked forward, for years and years it seemed, was, after a night’s darkness and a day’s sail, within touch.

4. (law) To transfer legal rights (to).

   He conveyed ownership of the company to his daughter.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, A View of the Present State of Ireland, Dublin, The Hibernia Press, 1809, p. 42,^[10]

     […] before his breaking forth into open rebellion, [the Earle of Desmond] had conveyed secretly all his lands to feoffees of trust, in hope to have cut off her Maiestie from the escheate of his lands.

5. (obsolete) To manage with privacy; to carry out.
   • 1557, uncredited translator, A Mery Dialogue by Erasmus, London: Antony Kytson,^[11]

     I shall so conuey my matters, that he shall dysclose all together hym selfe, what busynesse is betwene you […]

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act I, Scene 2,^[12]

     I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I shall find means, and acquaint you withal.

6. (obsolete) To carry or take away secretly; to steal; to thieve.
   • 1592, Robert Greene, A Disputation betweene a Hee Conny-Catcher and a Shee Conny-Catcher, London: T. Gubbin,

     Suppose you are good at the lift, who be more cunning then we women, in that we are more trusted, for they little suspect vs, and we haue as close conueyance as you men, though you haue Cloakes, we haue skirts of gownes, handbaskets, the crownes of our hattes, our plackardes, and for a need, false bagges vnder our smockes, wherein we can conuey more closely then you.

Synonyms

• (to move something from one place to another): carry, transport
• (to take someone from one place to another): accompany, conduct (archaic), escort
• (to communicate a message): express, send, relay

Derived terms

Related terms

• convoy

Translations