ACTING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Acting

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/ˈæktɪŋ/ Listen

Acting

adjective

1.

Serving temporarily especially as a substitute.

noun

1.

The performance of a part or role in a drama. Synonyms: performing, playacting, playing.

Act

verb

(past & past part. acted; pres. part. acting)

1.

Perform an action, or work out or perform (an action). Synonym: move. "We must move quickly" , "The governor should act on the new energy bill" , "The nanny acted quickly by grabbing the toddler and covering him with a wet towel"

2.

Behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself. Synonyms: behave, do. "Don't behave like a fool" , "What makes her do this way?" , "The dog acts ferocious, but he is really afraid of people"

3.

Play a role or part. Synonyms: play, represent. "She wants to act Lady Macbeth, but she is too young for the role" , "She played the servant to her husband's master"

4.

Discharge one's duties. "In what capacity are you acting?"

5.

Pretend to have certain qualities or state of mind. Synonyms: act as, play. "She plays deaf when the news are bad"

6.

Be suitable for theatrical performance.

7.

Have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or expected. Synonym: work. "How does your idea work in practice?" , "This method doesn't work" , "The breaks of my new car act quickly" , "The medicine works only if you take it with a lot of water"

8.

Be engaged in an activity, often for no particular purpose other than pleasure.

9.

Behave unnaturally or affectedly. Synonyms: dissemble, pretend.

10.

Perform on a stage or theater. Synonyms: play, playact, roleplay. "He acted in 'Julius Caesar'" , "I played in 'A Christmas Carol'"

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Acting" Quotes from Famous Books

... painted with a book? Well, those that can read 'em make out that they're full of wonderful things; as a man that's been to a fair across the mountains will always tell his people at home it was beyond anything they'll ever see. As for the Duchess, she was all for music, play-acting and young company. The Duke was a silent man, stepping quietly, with his eyes down, as though he'd just come from confession; when the Duchess's lap-dog yapped at his heels he danced like a man in a swarm of hornets; when the Duchess laughed he winced as ...

— Crucial Instances • Edith Wharton

... artificial means. Along this admirably selected fighting ground the French Marshal posted some hundred thousand men altogether, clinging to Gravelotte with his best troops, and leaving about twenty thousand as a reserve near Metz—thus acting entirely on the defensive. ...

— Fritz and Eric - The Brother Crusoes • John Conroy Hutcheson

... time he went up to his room, and sat there thinking it all over again, and asking himself whether it was fair of him to leave his sisters, and whether he was not acting selfishly in thus choosing his own life. He had gone over this ground again and again in the last few days, and he now came to the same conclusion, namely, that he could do no better for the girls by stopping at home, and that he had not decided upon accepting his uncle's invitation because the ...

— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... danger to either of them, it was no more than, on the shore, the uneasy stir of a storm far out at sea. Had the least thought of wronging her invaded his mind, he would have turned from it with abhorrence; yet was he endangering all her peace without giving it one reasonable thought. He was acting with a selfishness too much ingrained to manifest its own unlovely shape; while in his mind lay all the time a half-conscious care to avoid making the ...

— Salted With Fire • George MacDonald

... to continue his life of navigation with new enthusiasm. He had faith, the ideals, the illusions that heroes are made of. While the war lasted he would assist in his own way, acting as an auxiliary to those who were fighting, transporting all that was necessary to the struggle. He began to look with greater respect upon the sailors obedient to his orders, simple folk who had given their blood without fine phrases ...

— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

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