act

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Process of doing; action. In act, in the very doing; on the point of (doing). “In act to shoot.” Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

This woman was taken . . . in the very act. John viii. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

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-Fé. --
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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- See Action. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To perform; to execute; to do. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

That we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do. Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

Uplifted hands that at convenient times
Could act extortion and the worst of crimes. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To perform, as an actor; to represent dramatically on the stage. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To assume the office or character of; to play; to personate; as, to act the hero. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To feign or counterfeit; to simulate. [ 1913 Webster ]

With acted fear the villain thus pursued. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being acted. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. 1 baneberry.
Syn. -- genus Actaea [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. a growth hormone produced by the anterior pituitary gland; stimulates the adrenal cortex.
Syn. -- adrenocorticotropic hormone, adrenocorticotrophic hormone, adrenocorticotropin, adrenocorticotrophin, corticotropin, corticotrophin [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. 1 luna moths.
Syn. -- genus Actias [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, ray. ] (Zool.) Pertaining to the part of a radiate animal which contains the mouth. L. Agassiz. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL., from Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, ray. ] (Zool.) An order of Anthozoa, including those which have simple tentacles and do not form stony corals. Sometimes, in a wider sense, applied to all the Anthozoa, expert the Alcyonaria, whether forming corals or not. [ 1913 Webster ]