Acts


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act

 (ăkt)
n.
1. The process of doing or performing something: the act of thinking.
2.
a. Something done or performed; a deed: a charitable act.
b. Law Something done that has legal significance: a criminal act.
3. A statute or other law formally adopted by a legislative body: an act of Congress.
4. A formal written record of proceedings or transactions.
5. One of the major divisions of a play, opera, or film.
6.
a. A performance or entertainment usually forming part of a longer presentation: a juggling act; a magic act.
b. The actor or actors presenting such a performance: joined the act in Phoenix.
7. A manifestation of intentional or unintentional insincerity; a pose: put on an act.
v. act·ed, act·ing, acts
v.tr.
1. To play the part of; assume the dramatic role of: She plans to act Ophelia in summer stock.
2. To perform (a role) on the stage: act the part of the villain.
3.
a. To behave like or pose as; impersonate: Don't act the fool.
b. To behave in a manner suitable for: Act your age.
v.intr.
1. To behave or comport oneself: She acts like a born leader.
2. To perform in a dramatic role or roles.
3. To be suitable for theatrical performance: This scene acts well.
4. To behave affectedly or unnaturally; pretend.
5. To appear or seem to be: The dog acted ferocious.
6. To carry out an action: We acted immediately. The governor has not yet acted on the bill.
7. To operate or function in a specific way: His mind acts quickly.
8. To serve or function as a substitute for another: A coin can act as a screwdriver.
9. To produce an effect: waited five minutes for the anesthetic to act.
Phrasal Verbs:
act out
1. To perform in or as if in a play; represent dramatically: act out a story.
2. To realize in action: wanted to act out his theory.
3. To engage in socially inappropriate or impulsive behavior as a manifestation of psychological or emotional pain or turmoil.
act up
1. To misbehave.
2. To malfunction.
3. Informal To become active or troublesome after a period of quiescence: My left knee acts up in damp weather. Her arthritis is acting up again.
Idioms:
be in on the act
To be included in an activity.
clean up (one's) act Slang
To improve one's behavior or performance.
get into the act
To insert oneself into an ongoing activity, project, or situation.
get (one's) act together Slang
To get organized.

[Middle English, from Old French acte, from Latin āctus, a doing, and āctum, a thing done, both from past participle of agere, to drive, do; see ag- in Indo-European roots.]

ac′ta·bil′i·ty n.
act′a·ble adj.
Usage Note: Act and action both mean "a deed" and "the process of doing." However, other senses of act, such as "a decision made by a legislative body" and of action, such as "habitual or vigorous activity" show that act tends to refer to a deed while action tends to refer to the process of doing. Thus, people engage in sex acts but not sex actions. By the same token, one may want a piece of the action, but not a piece of the act. The demands of meaning or idiom often require one word or the other. In some cases, either can be used: my act (or action) was premature.

ACT 1

 (ā′sē-tē′)
A trademark for a standardized college entrance examination.

ACT 2

abbr.
Australian Capital Territory
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.acts - a New Testament book describing the development of the early church from Christ's Ascension to Paul's sojourn at RomeActs - a New Testament book describing the development of the early church from Christ's Ascension to Paul's sojourn at Rome
New Testament - the collection of books of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and other epistles, and Revelation; composed soon after Christ's death; the second half of the Christian Bible
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
Apostolien teot
References in classic literature ?
Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.
If we are to act, let it be in a theatre completely fitted up with pit, boxes, and gallery, and let us have a play entire from beginning to end; so as it be a German play, no matter what, with a good tricking, shifting afterpiece, and a figure-dance, and a hornpipe, and a song between the acts.
As all of these, however, had reference, either to the recommendation from the meeting at Annapolis, in September, 1786, or to that from Congress, in February, 1787, it will be sufficient to recur to these particular acts.
"You are a sort of monster," I added audaciously, "a Caliban who has pondered Setebos, and who acts as you act, in idle moments, by whim and fancy."
Henry paused between the First and Second Acts; reflecting, not on the merits of the play, but on the strange resemblance which the incidents so far presented to the incidents that had attended the disastrous marriage of the first Lord Montbarry.
But at a very early time the people of England began to act. And, strange as it may seem to us now, the earliest plays were acted by monks and took place in church.
In conformity with the Act of Congress of the United States entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times herein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled, "an Act, supplementary to an Act, for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times herein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." JAMES DILL, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York
'Tell me, do you not recollect that a few years ago, there were three tragedies acted in Spain, written by a famous poet of these kingdoms, which were such that they filled all who heard them with admiration, delight, and interest, the ignorant as well as the wise, the masses as well as the higher orders, and brought in more money to the performers, these three alone, than thirty of the best that have been since produced?'
Yet they felt that the true test of any Juliet is the balcony scene of the second act. They waited for that.
These three he calls the act, the content and the object.
If an enemy kills an enemy, there is nothing to excite pity either in the act or the intention, --except so far as the suffering in itself is pitiful.
Oh, tell me, who was it first announced, who was it first proclaimed, that man only does nasty things because he does not know his own interests; and that if he were enlightened, if his eyes were opened to his real normal interests, man would at once cease to do nasty things, would at once become good and noble because, being enlightened and understanding his real advantage, he would see his own advantage in the good and nothing else, and we all know that not one man can, consciously, act against his own interests, consequently, so to say, through necessity, he would begin doing good?