Word Meanings - ACT - Book Publishers vocabulary database

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.

Additional info about word: ACT

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: 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. A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has been done. Abbott. 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. 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. 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 . "In act to shoot." Dryden. This woman was taken . . . in the very act. John viii. 4. Act of attainder. See Attainder. -- Act of bankruptcy , an act of a debtor which renders him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt. -- Act of faith. See Auto-da-Fé. -- Act of God , 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.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of ACT)

• Deed
• Act
• action
• commission
• achievement
• perpetration
• instrument
• document
• muniment
• exploit
• feat
• Impersonate
• enact
• represent
• Live Vegetate
• grow
• survive
• continue
• abide
• dwell
• last
• subsist
• behave
• act
• breathe
• exist
• Officiate
• serve
• perform
• Operate
• work
• produce
• effect
• produce an effect
• have effect

Related words: (words related to ACT)

• BREATHE
  Etym: 1. To respire; to inhale and exhale air; hence;, to live. "I am in health, I breathe." Shak. Breathes there a man with soul so dead Sir W. Scott. 2. To take breath; to rest from action. Well! breathe awhile, and then to it again! Shak. 3.
• ENACTMENT
  1. The passing of a bill into a law; the giving of legislative sanction and executive approval to a bill whereby it is established as a law. 2. That which is enacted or passed into a law; a law; a decree; a statute; a prescribed requirement; as,
• INSTRUMENTAL
  Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for, an instrument, esp. a musical instrument; as, instrumental music, distinguished from vocal music. "He defended the use of instrumental music in public worship." Macaulay. Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental
• ENACTURE
  Enactment; resolution. Shak.
• EXIST
  exist; ex out + sistere to cause to stand, to set, put, place, stand 1. To be as a fact and not as a mode; to have an actual or real being, whether material or spiritual. Who now, alas! no more is missed Than if he never did exist. Swift.
• REPRESENTABLE
  Capable of being represented.
• EFFECTUOSE; EFFECTUOUS
  Effective. B. Jonson.
• PRODUCEMENT
  Production.
• EXISTER
  One who exists.
• ABIDER
  1. One who abides, or continues. "Speedy goers and strong abiders." Sidney. 2. One who dwells; a resident. Speed.
• REPRESENTANT
  Appearing or acting for another; representing.
• EXISTIBLE
  Capable of existence. Grew.
• ACTION
  Effective motion; also, mechanism; as, the breech action of a gun. (more info) 1. A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of
• SERVER
  1. One who serves. 2. A tray for dishes; a salver. Randolph.
• COMMISSIONAIRE
  1. One intrusted with a commission, now only a small commission, as an errand; esp., an attendant or subordinate employee in a public office, hotel, or the like. The commissionaire familiar to European travelers performs miscellaneous services
• SUBSISTENCY
  Subsistence.
• ENACTOR
  One who enacts a law; one who decrees or establishes as a law. Atterbury.
• ACTIONABLE
  That may be the subject of an action or suit at law; as, to call a man a thief is actionable.
• EXPLOITURE
  1. The act of exploiting or accomplishing; achievement. Udall. 2. Exploitation. Harper's Mag.
• OFFICIATE
  To act as an officer in performing a duty; to transact the business of an office or public trust; to conduct a public service. Bp. Stillingfleet.
• DISSERVE
  To fail to serve; to do injury or mischief to; to damage; to hurt; to harm. Have neither served nor disserved the interests of any party. Jer. Taylor. (more info) Etym:
• RESERVE
  1. To keep back; to retain; not to deliver, make over, or disclose. "I have reserved to myself nothing." Shak. 2. Hence, to keep in store for future or special use; to withhold from present use for another purpose or time; to keep; to retain. Gen.
• INDWELLING
  Residence within, as in the heart. The personal indwelling of the Spirit in believers. South.
• POSTEXIST
  To exist after; to live subsequently.
• DESERVEDNESS
  Meritoriousness.
• NONEXISTENCE
  1. Absence of existence; the negation of being; nonentity. A. Baxter. 2. A thing that has no existence. Sir T. Browne.
• REACTIONIST
  A reactionary. C. Kingsley.
• MISOBSERVE
  To observe inaccurately; to mistake in observing. Locke.
• MADEFACTION; MADEFICATION
  The act of madefying, or making wet; the state of that which is made wet. Bacon.
• INSERVE
  To be of use to an end; to serve.
• REDACTION
  The act of redacting; work produced by redacting; a digest.
• CHYLIFACTION
  The act or process by which chyle is formed from food in animal bodies; chylification, -- a digestive process.
• DISCONTINUE
  To interrupt the continuance of; to intermit, as a practice or habit; to put an end to; to cause to cease; to cease using, to stop; to leave off. Set up their conventicles again, which had been discontinued. Bp. Burnet. I have discontinued school
• DESERVE
  1. To earn by service; to be worthy of (something due, either good or evil); to merit; to be entitled to; as, the laborer deserves his wages; a work of value deserves praise. God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. Job xi. 6. John