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; not straight or rectilinear; deviating from a direct line or course; circuitous; as, an indirect road.

Not directed; aimless. [Obs.]

Oblique course or means; dishonest practices; indirectness. "By indirections find directions out." Shak.

not in express terms; obliquely; not by direct means; hence, unfairly; wrongly. To tax it indirectly by taxing their expense. A. Smith. Your crown and kingdom indirectly held. Shak.

The quality or state of being indirect; obliquity; deviousness; crookedness.

To refer to something indirectly or by suggestion; to have reference to a subject not specifically and plainly mentioned; -- followed by to; as, the story alludes to a recent transaction. These speeches . . . do seem to allude unto such ministerial garments as were then in use. Hooker.

nce to something supposed to be known, but not explicitly mentioned; a covert indication; indirect reference; a hint.

A circuit; a winding. Hence: Circuitous way or proceeding; quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech. After many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is. Burton.

An indirect argument which proves a thing by showing the impossibility or absurdity of the contrary.

Proving indirectly, by showing the absurdity, or impossibility of the contrary. Bp. Berkeley.

Cunning; disposed to cunning indirectness of dealing; crafty; as, an artful boy. [The usual sense.] Artful in speech, in action, and in mind. Pope. The artful revenge of various animals. Darwin.

A door in the back part of a building; hence, an indirect way. Atterbury.

in the back part of a house, as distinguished from the front stairs; hence, a private or indirect way.

Backhanded; indirect; oblique. [R.]

Indirect; awkward; insincere; sarcastic; as, a backhanded compliment.

State of being backhanded; the using of backhanded or indirect methods.

Private; indirect; secret; intriguing; as if finding access by the back stairs. A backstairs influence. Burke. Female caprice and backstairs influence. Trevelyan.

To dispose of quietly or indirectly; to suppress; to smother; to shelve; as, to burke a parliamentary question. The court could not burke an inquiry, supported by such a mass of a affidavits. C. Reade.

object of regard; an object by the way, etc.; as in on or upon the bye, i.e., in passing; indirectly; by implication. [Obs. except in the phrase by the bye.] The Synod of Dort condemneth upon the bye even the discipline of the Church of England. Fuller.

A private path; an obscure way; indirect means. God known, my son, By what bypaths, and indirect crooked ways, I met this crown. Shak.