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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Act \Act\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Acted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Acting}.] [L. actus, p. p. of agere to drive, lead, do; but influenced by E. act, noun]
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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Acting \Act"ing\, adjective
1. Operating in any way.
2. Doing duty for another; officiating; as, an acting superintendent. ||
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
acting
adjective: serving temporarily especially as a substitute; "the acting president" [syn: {acting(a)}]
noun: the performance of a part or role in a drama [syn: {playing}, {playacting}, {performing}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
143 Moby Thesaurus words for "acting": act, action, active, activism, activity, ad interim, affectation, aping, appearance, at work, attitudinizing, behavior, behavioral, bluff, bluffing, buffoonery, business, characterization, cheating, color, coloring, deception, delusion, deputative, deputy, disguise, dissemblance, dissembling, dissimulation, doing, dumb show, embodiment, employment, enacting, enactment, exercise, facade, face, fakery, faking, false air, false front, false show, falsity, feigning, feint, four-flushing, fraud, front, function, functional, functioning, gag, gilt, gloss, going, going on, ham, hammy acting, hoke, hokum, humbug, humbuggery, imitation, impersonation, imposture, in exercise, in force, in hand, in operation, in play, in practice, in process, in the works, inaction, incarnation, interim, masquerade, meretriciousness, mimesis, mimicking, mimicry, miming, movements, mummery, occupation, on foot, on the fire, ongoing, operating, operation, operational, operations, ostentation, outward show, overacting, pantomime, pantomiming, patter, performance, performing, personation, personification, play, playacting, playing, portrayal, pose, posing, posture, practice, practicing, praxis, pretense, pretension, pretext, pro tem, pro tempore, projection, representation, representative, running, seeming, semblance, serving, sham, show, simulacrum, simulation, slapstick, speciousness, stage business, stage directions, stage presence, stunt, supply, swing, taking a role, varnish, window dressing, work, working, workings
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |