direction

Noun

direction (countable and uncountable, plural directions)

1. A theoretical line (physically or mentally) followed from a point of origin or towards a destination. May be relative (e.g. up, left, outbound, dorsal), geographical (e.g. north), rotational (e.g. clockwise), or with respect to an object or location (e.g. toward Boston).
   • Keep going in the same direction.
   • Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
2. A general trend for future action.
3. Guidance, instruction.
   • The trombonist looked to the bandleader for direction.
4. The work of the director in cinema or theater; the skill of directing a film, play etc.
   • The screenplay was good, but the direction was weak.
5. (dated) The body of persons who guide or manage a matter; the directorate.
   • I shall not rest satisfied with merely employing my capital in insuring ships. I shall buy up some good Life Assurance shares, and cut into the Direction.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 46
6. (archaic) A person's address.
   • Her aunt Leonella was still at Cordova, and she knew not her direction.1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 218