direct action

noun

: action that seeks to achieve an end directly and by the most immediately effective means (such as a boycott or strike)

Examples of direct action in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Yes, there’s an argument that the state of Minnesota was such a poor steward of federal funds that some direct action by the feds was justified. —The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 7 Jan. 2026

When our vital national interests are implicated, the president takes bold, audacious, direct action. —CBS News, 4 Jan. 2026

All of Washington’s previous direct actions were in smaller, closer countries in Central America or the Caribbean. —Alan McPherson, The Conversation, 3 Jan. 2026

All of it was evasion, an instinctive turning away from direct action on the things that matter. —Rosa Lyster, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1912, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for direct action

• benefaction
• counteraction
• interaction
• liquefaction
• putrefaction
• rarefaction
• satisfaction
• stupefaction
• tumefaction
• abstraction
• attraction
• compaction

Legal Definition

direct action

noun

1

: an action in which the plaintiff sues a person's insurer without first obtaining a judgment against the insured or joining the insured

2

: a suit by a shareholder for an injury to himself or herself independent from any injury to the corporation

called also individual action

compare derivative action