ACTING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Acting

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/ˈæktɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Act v. t. (past & past part. acted; pres. part. acting)

1.

To move to action; to actuate; to animate. (Obs.) "Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul."

2.

To perform; to execute; to do. (Archaic) "That we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity." "Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do." "Uplifted hands that at convenient times Could act extortion and the worst of crimes."

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."

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."

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."

To act as or To act 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.

adjective

Acting adj.

1.

Operating in any way.

2.

Doing duty for another; officiating; as, an acting superintendent.

See images of 'Acting'

Etymology of 'Acting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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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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