INDIRECT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does indirect mean? 

• INDIRECT (adjective)
  The adjective INDIRECT has 5 senses:

1. having intervening factors or persons or influences

2. not direct in spatial dimension; not leading by a straight line or course to a destination

3. descended from a common ancestor but through different lines

4. extended senses; not direct in manner or language or behavior or action

5. not as a direct effect or consequence

  Familiarity information: INDIRECT used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INDIRECT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having intervening factors or persons or influences

Context example:

an indirect cause

Similar:

mediate (acting through or dependent on an intervening agency)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not direct in spatial dimension; not leading by a straight line or course to a destination

Context example:

you must take an indirect course in sailing

Similar:

askance; askant; asquint; sidelong; squint; squint-eyed; squinty ((used especially of glances) directed to one side with or as if with doubt or suspicion or envy)

circuitous; devious; roundabout (deviating from a straight course)

diversionary ((of tactics e.g.) likely or designed to confuse or deceive)

meandering; rambling; wandering; winding (of a path e.g.)

Also:

crooked (having or marked by bends or angles; not straight or aligned)

Attribute:

directness; straightness (trueness of course toward a goal)

Antonym:

direct (direct in spatial dimensions; proceeding without deviation or interruption; straight and short)

Derivation:

indirectness (having the characteristic of lacking a true course toward a goal)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Descended from a common ancestor but through different lines

Synonyms:

collateral; indirect

Context example:

an indirect descendant of the Stuarts

Also:

related (connected by kinship, common origin, or marriage)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Extended senses; not direct in manner or language or behavior or action

Context example:

known as a shady indirect fellow

Similar:

ambagious; circumlocutious; circumlocutory; periphrastic (roundabout and unnecessarily wordy)

tortuous (not straightforward)

mealy-mouthed; mealymouthed (hesitant to state facts or opinions simply and directly as from e.g. timidity or hypocrisy)

hearsay (heard through another rather than directly)

digressive; discursive; excursive; rambling ((of e.g. speech and writing) tending to depart from the main point or cover a wide range of subjects)

devious; oblique (indirect in departing from the accepted or proper way; misleading)

circuitous; roundabout (marked by obliqueness or indirection in speech or conduct)

backhanded (roundabout or ambiguous)

allusive (characterized by indirect references)

Antonym:

direct (straightforward in means or manner or behavior or language or action)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Not as a direct effect or consequence

Context example:

an indirect advantage

Similar:

secondary (being of second rank or importance or value; not direct or immediate)

Derivation:

indirectness (having the characteristic of lacking a true course toward a goal)

 Context examples 

As an anticoagulant protein, PP4 acts as an indirect inhibitor of the blood coagulation cascade thromboplastin-specific complex.

(Annexin A5 Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

Sometimes it is indirect, such as spreading rumors or trying to make others reject someone.

(Bullying, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

These interactions lead to a direct or indirect control of cellular activities such as adhesion, migration, differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis.

(ECM-Receptor Interaction Signaling Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

Examples of indirect deaths include those associated with epilepsy, diabetes, cardiac disease and hormone-dependent malignancies.

(Indirect Maternal Death, NCI Thesaurus)

Damage inflicted on the soft tissues and their supporting structures as the direct or indirect result of an external force, with or without disruption of structural continuity.

(Connective and Soft Tissue Injury, NCI Thesaurus)

It can be transmitted by direct or indirect contact.

(Infectious Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Although its mechanism of action is unknown, acetazolamide has anti-convulsant properties resulting from indirect effects secondary to metabolic acidosis or direct effects on neuronal transmission.

(Acetazolamide, NCI Thesaurus)

Activated macrophages secrete cytokines and induce the recruitment and activation of other immune cells, which may result in indirect tumoricidal effects.

(Mifamurtide, NCI Thesaurus)

Peptides with direct synaptic effects or indirect modulatory effects on the nervous system.

(Neuropeptide, NCI Thesaurus)

Retreating before Lip-lip, White Fang made an indirect flight that led in and out and around the various tepees of the camp.

(White Fang, by Jack London)