8oG DIR 
rocks and precipices, and expofed her to the mod poig¬ 
nant pains, till the gods, pitying her fate, changed her 
into a fountain, in the neighbourhood of Thebes. Ac¬ 
cording to fome accounts Antiope was mother to Am- 
phion and Zetlius, before flie was confined and expofed 
to the tyranny of Dirce. ALlian. Lucan.' 
DIR'CHAU, a town of Pruflia, in the palatinate of 
Culm, on the Viftula : twelve miles fouth of Dantzick. 
DIRCHL, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Leit- 
meritz : fix miles fouth of Leypa. 
DIRE, adj. [dirus, Lat.] Dreadful; difmal ; mourn¬ 
ful ; horrible ; terrible ; evil in a great degree : 
More by intemperance die 
In meats, and drinks, which on the earth fiiall bring 
Difeafes dire. Miltcn. 
DIRE'CT, adj. [ diredas, Lat.] Straight; not crook¬ 
ed. Not oblique.—The (hips would move in one and 
the fame furface ; and confequently mud needs encounter 
when they either advance towards one another in dired 
lines, or meet in the interfedfion of crofs lines. Bentley. — 
[In afixonomy.] Appearing to an eye on earth to move 
progrefiively through the zodiac : not retrograde : 
Two geomantic figures were difplay’d 
Above his head, a warrior and a maid, 
One when dired, and one when retrograde. Dryden. 
Not collateral, as the grandfon fucceeds his grandfire in 
a dired line. Apparently tending to fome end, as in a 
ftraight line.—He that does this, will be able to call off 
all that is fuperfluous: he will fee what is pertinent, 
what coherent; what is diced to, what Hides by, the 
queftion. Locke. —Open; not ambiguous.—There be, that 
are in nature faithful and fincere, and plain and diced, not 
crafty and involved. Bacon. —Plain ; exprefs.—He no 
where, that I know, fays it in dired words. Locke. 
DIRE'CT, adj. in arithmetic, is when the proportion 
any terms, or quantities, is in the natural or diredt order 
in which they Band ; being the oppofite to inverfe, which 
confiders the proportion in the inverted order of the 
terms. So, 3 : 4 :: 6 : 8 diredtly; or 3 : 4 :: 8 : 6 inverfe- 
ly. The Rule of Three Diredt, is when both pairs of 
terms are in diredt proportion. 
To DIRECT, v,a. [dingo, diredum, Lat.] To aim or 
drive in a ftraight line : 
Two eagles from a mountain’s height, 
By Jove’s command, dired their rapid flight. Pope. 
To point againft as a mark : 
The fpear flew hiding thro’ the middle fpace, 
And pierc’d his throat, direded at his face. Dryden. 
To regulate ; to adjuft.—It is not in man that walketh, 
to dired his fteps. Jer.x. 23.—Wifdorn is profitable to 
dired. Ecclus.x. 10.—To preferibe certain meafure; to 
mark out a certain courfe.—He diredeth it under the 
whole heavens, and his lightning unto the ends of the 
earth. Job, xxxvii. 3.—To order; to command : to dired 
is a fofter term than to command. 
DIREC'TER,y; [diredor, I,at.] One that diredts ; 
one that preferibes. An inftrument that ferves to guide 
any manual operation. 
DIREC'TION, f. [diredio, Lat.] Aim at a certain 
point.—The diredion of good works to a good end, is the 
only principle that diftinguifties charity. Smalridge. — 
Motion impreffed by a certain impulfe. See'MccHA- 
T.ics.—No particle of matter, nor any combination of 
particles, that is, no body, can either move of itfelf, or 
of itfelf alter the diredion of its motion. Cheyne. —Order ; 
command ; prefeription.—The nobles of the people dig¬ 
ged it, by ti>e diredion of the law-giver. Numb. xxi. 18. 
—Men’s paftions and God’s diredion feldom agree. King 
Charles. 
DIRECTION, f. in aftrology, a kind of calculus, by 
which they pretend to find the time in which any remark¬ 
able accident or event (hall befall the perlon whofe ho- 
D I R 
rofeope is drawn, or nativity calculated. For infrance* 
having eftablifhed the fun, moon, or afeendant, as maf- 
ters or fignificators of life ; and Mars or Saturn aspro- 
mifers or portenders of death ; the diredtion is a calcu¬ 
lation of the time in which the fignificator (hall meet 
the portender; and then the event is to happen. The 
fignificator they likewife call aph ta, or giver of life ; and 
the promifer, anercta, promijfor, or giver of death. They 
work the directions of all the principal points of the 
heavens and ftars, as the afeendant, mid-heaven, fun, 
moon, and part of fortune. The like is done for the 
planets and fixed ftars ; but all differently, according to 
the different authors. 
DIRE'CTION (Iflands of), four fmall iflands at the 
weft entrance of the ftraits of Magellan, in the South 
Pacific Ocean. Lat. 52. 27. S. Ion-. 77. 19. W. Green- 
wich. 
DIRE'CTION-GIVER,/. A directer: 
Therefore, fweet Proteus, my diredion-giver 
Let us into the city. Shakefpeare . 
DIRE'CTION-WORD. See Catch.word. 
DIRE'CTIVE, f. Having the power of direction. 
—A law, therefore, generally taken, is a diredive rule 
unto goodnefsof operation. Hooker. —Informing; (hewing 
the way: 
Nor vifited by one diredive ray, 
From cottage dreaming, or from airy hall. Thomfon. 
DIRECT'LY, adv. In a ftraight line ; rectilineally.—> 
The more a body is nearer to the eyes, and the more di- 
redly it is oppofed to them, the more it is enlightened ; 
becaufe the light languifties and leffens, the farther it 
removes from its proper fource. Dryden. —Immediately; 
apparently; without circumlocution; without any long 
train of confequence.—No man hath hitherto been fo 
impious, as plainly and diredly to condemn prayer. Hooker, 
—His work diredly tends to raife fentiments of honour 
and virtue in his readers. Addijon. 
DIRECT'NESS,/. Straightnefs; tendency to any 
point; the neareft way.—They argued from celeftial 
caufes only, the conftant vicinity of the fun, and the di- 
rednefs of Ins rays; never fufpedting that the body of the 
earth had fo great an efficiency in the changes of the air. 
Bentley. 
DIRECTOR,/. [diredor, Lat.] One that has autho¬ 
rity over others; a fuperintendent; one that has the ge¬ 
neral management of a defign or work.—Himfelf (food 
diredor over them, with nodding or (tamping, (hewing 
he did like or miftike thofe things he did not underftand, 
Sidney. —A rule ; an ordinance .- 
Common forms were not defign’d 
Diredors to a noble mind. Swift, 
An inftrudtor; one who (hews the proper methods of 
proceeding.—They are glad to ufe counfellors and direc¬ 
tors in all their dealings of weight, as contracts, tefta- 
ments. Hooker.' —One who is conlulted in cafes of con¬ 
fidence.—I am her diredor and her guide in fpiritual 
affairs. Dryden. —One appointed to iranfadt the affairs of 
a tradin' 1 ' company.—What made diredors cheat in South- 
fea yearl Pope. —An inftrument in forgery, by which the 
hand is guided in its operation.—The manner of opening 
with a knife, is by Aiding it on a diredor-, the groove of 
which prevents its being mifguided. Sharp. 
DIRECTORY, f. The book whicli the factious 
preachers publiflied in the rebellion for the diredtion of 
their fedt in adds of worlhip.—As to the ordinance con¬ 
cerning the diredory, we cannot confent to the taking 
aW ay of the book of common prayer. Oxford. —Any book 
of diredtions, as, the Britifli Directory. 
DIRECTORY, adj. Enjoining.—Every law may be 
faid to con lift of feveral parts : one declaratory, whereby 
the rights to be obferved, and the wxongs to be efehew- 
ed, are clearly laid down; another diredory, whereby the 
3 fubject 
