From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdirect speechdiˌrect ˈspeech noun [uncountable] technical SLGspeech reported using the actual words spoken She said, ‘I'm not going if it rains.’ is an example of direct speech. → indirect speech, reported speech
Examples from the Corpus
direct speech• Quoted phrases, distinguishing direct speech, quotation, terms and glosses, cited phrases etc.• They should be shown how to set out and punctuate direct speech, using inverted commas and commas.• They believe music causes less offence to the listener than direct speech. 