indirect

What it means

1. Not direct

   Se asked him some indirect questions to ascertain whether he was single.

   2 more examples

   While not mentioning any of their competitors by name, the CEO made some indirect statements that they were acting immorally.

   Indirect messages permit communicative contacts when, without them, the alternatives would be total inhibition, silence, and solitude on the one hand, or, on the other, communicative behavior that is direct, offensive, and hence forbidden. This is a painful choice. In actual practice, neither alternative is likely to result in the gratification of personal or sexual needs. In this dilemma, indirect communications provide a useful compromise. As an early move in the dating game, the young man might invite the young woman to dinner or to the movies.

   1974, Thomas S. Szasz, M.D., chapter 8, in The Myth of Mental Illness, →ISBN, pages 139–140

   Synonyms: circuitous

2. Not direct:
   1. Not of obvious or immediate cause, but as a secondary result.

      The direct result of socialising every day in the bars may be happiness and meeting new people, but the indirect results could be addiction, or even poverty.

      Synonyms: circuitous

   2. Not focused straight at the target or subject; whose true aim appears secondary or obscure.

      Synonyms: circuitous

In a sentence

While not mentioning any of their competitors by name, the CEO made some indirect statements that they were acting immorally.

Where it comes from

1. Late Latinindirectus“not direct”
2. Middle Frenchindirect
3. Englishindirect

From Middle French indirect, from Late Latin indirectus (“not direct”).