Definition of "act"

act

/ækt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural acts
1. (countable) Something done, a deed.
  Quotations
  That best portion of a good man's life, / His little, nameless, unremembered acts / Of kindness and of love.
  1798, William Wordsworth, Lines
2. (obsolete, uncountable) Actuality.
  Quotations
  The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be.
  1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, (please specify the page)
3. (theology) Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
4. (law, countable) A product of a legislative body, a statute.
  Quotations
  But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.
  2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 87
5. The process of doing something.
6. (countable) A formal or official record of something done.
7. (countable, drama) A division of a theatrical performance.
  Quotations
  “H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what [...] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”
  1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Lisson Grove Mystery‎
8. (countable) A performer or performers in a show.
9. (countable) Any organized activity.
  Quotations
  The minute you let it be known you're planning a sales campaign everybody wants to get into the act.
  1934, Babette Hughes, One egg: a farce in one act, page 46
10. (countable) A display of behaviour.
11. A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
12. (countable) A display of behaviour meant to deceive.
13. (law) Ellipsis of act of parliament.
verb
third-person singular simple present acts, present participle acting, simple past and past participle acted
1. (intransitive) To do something.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To do (something); to perform.
  Quotations
  that we act our temporal affairs with a deſire no greater than our neceſſity
  1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Signes of Purity of Intention”, in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], page 23
  Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do.
  a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). Of Industry in General”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831
  Uplifted hands that at convenient times / Could act extortion and the worst of crimes.
  1782, William Cowper, Expostulation
3. (intransitive) To perform a theatrical role.
4. (intransitive) Of a play: to be acted out (well or badly).
  Quotations
  But whatever types he assumes, the need to have a good play which acts delightfully well before the audience, and to their delectation, is the dominant thrust. If the play acts well, the director gets the credits.
  2011, Effiong Johnson, Play Production Processes, page 180
5. (intransitive) To behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time.
6. (copulative) To convey an appearance of being.
7. (intransitive) To do something that causes a change binding on the doer.
8. (intransitive, construed with on or upon) To have an effect (on).
9. (transitive) To play (a role).
10. (transitive) To feign.
  Quotations
  With acted fear the villain thus pursued.
  1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
11. (intransitive, law) To carry out work as a legal representative in relation to a particular legal matter.
12. (intransitive, mathematics, construed with on or upon, of a group) To map via a homomorphism to a group of automorphisms (of).
13. (obsolete, transitive) To move to action; to actuate; to animate.
  Quotations
  Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul.
  1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […]
14. (obsolete, Scotland, transitive) To enact; to decree.

Definition of "act"

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