Definition of "directly"

On arriving at the doors, and entering a long, capacious passage, our eyes became quite dazzled by the gleams of colored light which shone upon them, both directly and reflectedly.

1855, William Wells Brown, Sketches of Places and People Abroad, page 255

It is more difficult to directly compare train operations and maintenance, given how fragmented the non-infrastructure segments of the industry are today.

2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 46

"Mujtahidd" has attracted almost 300,000 followers since the end of last year, when he began posting scandalous claims about the Saudi elite. In one tweet, Mujtahidd directly challenged Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Fahd about his political history: "Did you resign or were you forced to resign from your post as head of the diwan [office] of the council of ministers?"

2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian

The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, […] . Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read.

2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist

Tenderly, reluctantly, he took his leave of her, promising that he would contact her directly he got back, perhaps in ten days or so.

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 725

He is to go to Calais, directly this is over, to replace Lord Berners as governor [...].

2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 463