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• n  indirect procedure or action
  he tried to find out by indirection
• n  deceitful action that is not straightforward
  he could see through the indirections of diplomats

• The unfortunate museum officials obeyed with artistic indirection.
• We know the Senators' tics and mannerisms, their preferred methods of verbal indirection, their expressions when they're angry or surprised or bored.
• With typical Communist indirection, Moscow and Peking used tiny, insignificant Albania as the symbol of the quarrel and as their ideological whipping boy.

News & Articles

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• What’s Behind the New Iranian Charm Offensive
  Usually, it’s hard to tell quite what’s going on with Iran. Usually, the government is divided and its signals to a foreigner mixed, or at least wreathed in what’s been dubbed in the past as “Oriental indirection.” Translated — and anything coming out of Tehran must be translated — Oriental indirection means “listen to what I didn’t say” and “watch my eyes dance as I don’t say it.” It’s a bit ...
  Sept. 20, 2013 - Time.com via Yahoo! News

Quotes

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• Bob Woodward in Sydney Morning Herald
  I was as speechless as I was in July 2006 when I interviewed him and he said he was not a military commander, that he could make the case that he was 'by indirection, two or three steps removed',Woodward told me afterwards.
• Frederick Reiken in NPR
  We use a metaphorical version of sleight of hand all the time,Reiken says. "There's so much indirection in our lives."
• Ernie Chambers in Stateline.org
  I will have achieved by indirection, during the waning hours of my career here, what I could not directly accomplish. This demonstrates that there is more than one way to crack a walnut,Chambers said in a telephone interview with...