Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Act?

\Act\ ([a^]kt), n. [L. actus, fr. agere to drive, do: cf. F. acte. See {Agent}.] 1. That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a performance; a deed. That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love. --Wordsworth. Hence, in specific uses: (a) The result of public deliberation; the decision or determination of a legislative body, council, court of justice, etc.; a decree, edit, law, judgment, resolve, award; as, an act of Parliament, or of Congress. (b) A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has been done. --Abbott. (c) A performance of part of a play; one of the principal divisions of a play or dramatic work in which a certain definite part of the action is completed. (d) A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student. 2. A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence. [Obs.] The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be. --Hooker. 3. Process of doing; action. In act, in the very doing; on the point of (doing). ``In act to shoot.'' --Dryden. This woman was taken . . . in the very act. --John viii. 4. {Act of attainder}. (Law) See {Attainder}. {Act of bankruptcy} (Law), an act of a debtor which renders him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt. {Act of faith}. (Ch. Hist.) See {Auto-da-F['e]}. {Act of God} (Law), an inevitable accident; such extraordinary interruption of the usual course of events as is not to be looked for in advance, and against which ordinary prudence could not guard. {Act of grace}, an expression often used to designate an act declaring pardon or amnesty to numerous offenders, as at the beginning of a new reign. {Act of indemnity}, a statute passed for the protection of those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them to penalties. --Abbott. {Act in pais}, a thing done out of court (anciently, in the country), and not a matter of record. Syn: See {Action}.
\Act\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Acted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Acting}.] [L. actus, p. p. of agere to drive, lead, do; but influenced by E. act, n.] 1. To move to action; to actuate; to animate. [Obs.] Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul. --Pope. 2. To perform; to execute; to do. [Archaic] That we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity. --Jer. Taylor. Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do. --Barrow. Uplifted hands that at convenient times Could act extortion and the worst of crimes. --Cowper. 3. To perform, as an actor; to represent dramatically on the stage. 4. To assume the office or character of; to play; to personate; as, to act the hero. 5. To feign or counterfeit; to simulate. With acted fear the villain thus pursued. --Dryden. {To act a part}, to sustain the part of one of the characters in a play; hence, to simulate; to dissemble. {To act the part of}, to take the character of; to fulfill the duties of.
\Act\, v. i. 1. To exert power; to produce an effect; as, the stomach acts upon food. 2. To perform actions; to fulfill functions; to put forth energy; to move, as opposed to remaining at rest; to carry into effect a determination of the will. He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest. --Pope. 3. To behave or conduct, as in morals, private duties, or public offices; to bear or deport one's self; as, we know not why he has acted so. 4. To perform on the stage; to represent a character. To show the world how Garrick did not act. --Cowper. {To act as} or {for}, to do the work of; to serve as. {To act on}, to regulate one's conduct according to. {To act up to}, to equal in action; to fulfill in practice; as, he has acted up to his engagement or his advantages.