Di*rec"tion (?), n. [L. directio: cf. F. direction.]
1. The act of directing, of aiming, regulating, guiding, or ordering; guidance; management; superintendence; administration; as, the direction o public affairs or of a bank.
I do commit his youth
To your direction.
Shak.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;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 1913. | 
