(finance, accounting, business) A cost that can be directly attributed to a cost object (such as a particular project, facility, function, service, or product).

(biology) The intentional spreading of life through space, in order to colonize distant worlds and create new biospheres

plural of direct deposit

Energy transfer achieved by means of physical contact, i.e., coupling other than inductive or capacitive coupling.

plural of co-direction

(algebra) A set of algebraic structures (which are part of a concrete category; e.g., modules) and a set of morphisms between them (e.g., module homomorphisms) which all together form a small category which is the image of a covariant functor whose domain is a directed poset.

(algebra) A set of equivalence classes which partition the disjoint union of the members of a direct system; each equivalence class being a sort of “drainage basin” of the mappings (of the morphisms) of the direct system, if these are analogically considered as “rivers”. (If i<k,j<k in the indexing poset, then there exist f_ik:A_i→A_k and f_jk:A_j→A_k. If a_i∈A_i,a_j∈A_j such that f_ik(a_i)=f_jk(a_j) then a_i∼a_j. If k = j then f_jj(a_j)=a_j,f_ij(a_i)=a_j.)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see direct, access. / (computing) Synonym of random access

The aiming and firing of a projectile at a target in line of sight from the weapon.

The practice, of cats and some other animals, of placing their hindfeet in the same place as (i.e. in the prints left by) their forefeet.