2. Not tending to an aim, purpose, or result by the plainest
course, or by obvious means, but obliquely or
consequentially; by remote means; as, an indirect
accusation, attack, answer, or proposal.
By what bypaths and indirect, crooked ways I met
this crown. --Shak.
3. Not straightforward or upright; unfair; dishonest; tending
to mislead or deceive.
Indirect dealing will be discovered one time or
other. --Tillotson.
4. Not resulting directly from an act or cause, but more or
less remotely connected with or growing out of it; as,
indirect results, damages, or claims.
5. (Logic & Math.) Not reaching the end aimed at by the most
plain and direct method; as, an indirect proof,
demonstration, etc.
{Indirect claims}, claims for remote or consequential damage.
Such claims were presented to and thrown out by the
commissioners who arbitrated the damage inflicted on the
United States by the Confederate States cruisers built and
supplied by Great Britain.
{Indirect demonstration}, a mode of demonstration in which
proof is given by showing that any other supposition
involves an absurdity (reductio ad absurdum), or an
impossibility; thus, one quantity may be proved equal to
another by showing that it can be neither greater nor
less.
{Indirect discourse}. (Gram.) See {Direct discourse}, under
{Direct}.
{Indirect evidence}, evidence or testimony which is
circumstantial or inferential, but without witness; --
opposed to {direct evidence}.
{Indirect tax}, a tax, such as customs, excises,
Those intervening ideas which serve to show the
agreement of any two others are called ``proofs;''
and where agreement or disagreement is by this means
plainly and clearly perceived, it is called
demonstration. --Locke.
2. An expression, as of the feelings, by outward signs; a
manifestation; a show.
Did your letters pierce the queen to any
demonstration of grief? --Shak.
Loyal demonstrations toward the prince. --Prescott.
3. (Anat.) The exhibition and explanation of a dissection or
other anatomical preparation.
4. (Mil.) a decisive exhibition of force, or a movement
indicating an attack.
5. (Logic) The act of proving by the syllogistic process, or
the proof itself.
6. (Math.) A course of reasoning showing that a certain
result is a necessary consequence of assumed premises; --
these premises being definitions, axioms, and previously
established propositions.
{Direct}, or {Positive}, {demonstration} (Logic & Math.), one
in which the correct conclusion is the immediate sequence
of reasoning from axiomatic or established premises; --
opposed to
{Indirect}, or {Negative}, {demonstration} (called also
{reductio ad absurdum}), in which the correct conclusion
is an inference from the demonstration that any other
hypothesis must be incorrect.
A farmer of taxes is, of all creditors,
proverbially the most rapacious. --Macaulay.
(b) Especially, the sum laid upon specific things, as upon
polls, lands, houses, income, etc.; as, a land tax; a
window tax; a tax on carriages, and the like.
Note: Taxes are {annual} or {perpetual}, {direct} or
{indirect}, etc.
(c) A sum imposed or levied upon the members of a society
to defray its expenses.
2. A task exacted from one who is under control; a
contribution or service, the rendering of which is imposed
upon a subject.
3. A disagreeable or burdensome duty or charge; as, a heavy
tax on time or health.
4. Charge; censure. [Obs.] --Clarendon.
5. A lesson to be learned; a task. [Obs.] --Johnson.
{Tax cart}, a spring cart subject to a low tax. [Eng.]
Syn: Impost; tribute; contribution; duty; toll; rate;
assessment; exaction; custom; demand.