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Direct vs Utter - What's the difference?

direct | utter | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between direct and utter

is that direct is straight, constant, without interruption while utter is outer; furthest out, most remote.

As adverbs the difference between direct and utter

is that direct is directly while utter is further out; further away, outside.

As verbs the difference between direct and utter

is that direct is to manage, control, steer while utter is to say.

direct

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Straight, constant, without interruption.
  • Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end.
    • the most direct route between two buildings
  • Straightforward; sincere.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Be even and direct with me.
  • Immediate; express; plain; unambiguous.
  • * John Locke
    • He nowhere, that I know, says it in direct words.
  • * Hallam
    • a direct and avowed interference with elections
  • In the line of descent; not collateral.
    • a descendant in the direct line
  • (astronomy) In the direction of the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; said of the motion of a celestial body.

    • Antonyms

    * indirect

    Derived terms

    * direct action * direct current * direct flight * direct initiative * direct object * direct quote

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Directly.
  • * 2009 , Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall , Fourth Estate 2010, p. 346:
    • Presumably Mary is to carry messages that she, Anne, is too delicate to convey direct .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To manage, control, steer.
    • to direct the affairs of a nation or the movements of an army
  • To aim (something) at (something else).
    • They directed their fire towards the men on the wall.
    He directed his question to the room in general.
  • To point out or show to (somebody) the right course or way; to guide, as by pointing out the way.
    • He directed me to the left-hand road.
  • * Lubbock
    • the next points to which I will direct your attention
  • To point out to with authority; to instruct as a superior; to order.
    • She directed them to leave immediately.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I'll first direct my men what they shall do.
  • (dated) To put a direction or address upon; to mark with the name and residence of the person to whom anything is sent.
    • to direct a letter

    Related terms

    * direction * directly * director * adroit * dirge * dirigible * dress

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    utter

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ; compare (outer).

    Adjective

    (-)
  • * Chapman
    • By him a shirt and utter mantle laid.
  • * Spenser
    • As doth an hidden moth / The inner garment fret, not th' utter touch.
  • * Milton
    • Through utter and through middle darkness borne.
  • (obsolete) Outward.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Matthew XXIII:
    • Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.10:
    • So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came .
  • Absolute, unconditional, total, complete.
    • utter''' ruin; '''utter darkness
  • * Atterbury
    • They are utter strangers to all those anxious thoughts which disquiet mankind.
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1920 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=Thuvia, Maiden of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=His eyes could not penetrate the darkness even to the distinguishing of his hand before his face, while the banths, he knew, could see quite well, though absence of light were utter . }}
    Synonyms
    * see also
    Derived terms
    * utterly * utterness * uttermost

    Etymology 2

    Partly from (out) (adverb/verb), partly from (etyl) uteren.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To say
    • Don't you utter another word!
  • To use the voice
    • Sally uttered a sigh of relief.
    The dog uttered a growling bark.
  • To make speech sounds which may or may not have an actual language involved
    • Sally is uttering some fairly strange things in her illness.
  • *
  • To make (a noise)
    • Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.
  • (legal) To put counterfeit money, etc. , into circulation
    • Derived terms
    * utterance * utterer * utterless * utterable

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (label) Further out; further away, outside.
  • *, Bk.VII, Ch.v:
  • *:So whan he com nyghe to hir, she bade hym ryde uttir —‘for thou smellyst all of the kychyn.’
    • ----