DIRECTION, in military mechanics, signifies the line or path of a body in motion, along which it endeavors to force its way, according to the propelling power that is given to it.
Angle of Direction, that formed by the lines of direction of two conspiring powers.
Quantity of Direction, a term used by military mathematicians for the product of the velocity of the common centre of gravity of a system of bodies, by the sum of their quantities of matter: this is no ways altered by any collisions among the bodies themselves.
DIRK, a kind of dagger used by military men, and by the highlanders in Scotland.
To DISARM. To deprive a soldier of every species of offensive or defensive weapon.
DISARMED. Soldiers divested of their arms, either by conquest, or in consequence of some defection.
DISBANDED, the soldiers of any regiment, who are in a body dismissed from the conditions of their military service.
DISBARK. See [Disembark].
DISCHARGE, in a military sense, is the dismissing a soldier from the troop or company he belonged to, either at his own request, or after long services.
This term is also applied to the firing of cannon or musquets, as a discharge of cannon, or of small arms.