The Collaborative International Dictionary
Act \Act\, v. i.
To exert power; to produce an effect; as, the stomach acts upon food.
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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.
--Pope. 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.
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To perform on the stage; to represent a character.
To show the world how Garrick did not act.
--Cowper.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.
to act up, to misbehave
Usage examples of "to act up".
He may have as strong a sense of what would be right, as you can have, without being so equal, under particular circumstances, to act up to it.
He haggled long about the price, for form's sake, to act up to his part as Nicholas Korpanoff, a plain merchant of Irkutsk.