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act
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
act
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a criminal offence/act (=a crime)
▪ Cruelty to animals is a criminal offence.
a lawyer acts for/defends/represents sb
▪ a group of lawyers who represent the airline
a novelty act (=a performance that is unusual and different)
▪ Mike Michaels the Mechanical Magician was one of the best novelty acts I've seen.
a symbolic act
▪ Lighting the Olympic flame is a symbolic act.
a teaching/acting/sporting career
▪ Her acting career lasted for more than 50 years.
a terrorist attack/bombing/act
▪ More than 50 people were injured in the terrorist attack.
act as a catalyst
▪ They hope his election will act as a catalyst for reform.
act as a consultant (=be a consultant on a particular project)
▪ He acted as a historical consultant on the film.
act as an incentive (=be an incentive)
▪ The chance of promotion acts as an incentive for many employees.
act as...a deterrent
▪ The small fines for this type of crime do not act as much of a deterrent.
act decisively
▪ Yet again, we have failed to act decisively.
act for/on behalf of a client
▪ The lawyer will write confirming that he agrees to act for his client.
act of aggression
▪ an unprovoked act of aggression
act of worship (=religious ceremony)
▪ We were invited to join in their act of worship .
act on an impulse (=do something because you have a sudden desire to do it)
▪ Acting on an impulse, he decided to visit his sister.
act your age (=behave in the way that a person of your age should behave)
▪ It’s time he started acting his age.
act/behave responsibly
▪ Can I rely on you to behave responsibly while I’m away?
acted as...intermediary
▪ Jackson acted as an intermediary between the two parties.
acted deceitfully
▪ His lawyer argued that his client had not acted deceitfully.
acted in good faith
▪ The company had acted in good faith.
acted on...own initiative (=he was not told what to do)
▪ Lt. Carlos was not obeying orders. He acted on his own initiative.
act/gesture of defiance
▪ Running away was an act of defiance against his parents.
acting ability
▪ Her acting abilities were obvious straightaway.
acting as agents
▪ We’re acting as agents for Mr Watson.
acting in bad faith
▪ In order to sue, you have to prove that the company was acting in bad faith.
acting suspiciously
▪ He saw two youths acting suspiciously.
act/perform/appear in a play
▪ She acted in many plays on the London stage.
acts as camouflage
▪ The whiteness of the arctic fox acts as camouflage, hiding it from its enemies.
acts of generosity
acts of sabotage
▪ The terrorists were planning acts of sabotage to destabilize the country.
act/serve as a go-between
▪ A UN representative will act as a go-between for leaders of the two countries.
an act of parliament (=a law that has been passed by parliament)
▪ Their rights are guaranteed by Act of Parliament.
an act of revenge
▪ The men were shot dead in an act of revenge for Khan’s assassination.
an act of terrorism
▪ The prosecution alleged that the men had been responsible for many acts of terrorism.
an act of violence
▪ Police warned that acts of violence would not be tolerated.
an illegal act
▪ Driving without insurance is an illegal act.
balancing act
▪ Gilmore had to perform the difficult balancing act of attracting moderate voters without losing his Conservative base.
catch sb in the act (of doing sth) (=catch someone while they are doing something illegal)
▪ The gang was caught in the act of unloading the cigarettes.
circus act (=a trick performed in a circus)
commit an act of violence/terrorism/aggression etc
▪ Anyone committing an act of terrorism will be severely punished.
despicable act
▪ a despicable act of terrorism
double act
film/acting/directorial etc debut
▪ His Broadway debut was ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’.
get in on the act (=become involved in something exciting or interesting)
▪ The scheme has proved very successful, and now other local authorities are keen to get in on the act.
pass a law/bill/act
▪ The first Transport Act was passed in 1907.
prosecute sb under a law/Act etc
▪ The company is to be prosecuted under the Health and Safety Act.
provocative act
▪ a provocative act by a terrorist group
serve as/act as a reminder (=be a reminder)
▪ The photograph will serve as a lovely reminder of your visit.
stay/act within the law (=not do illegal things)
▪ The security forces must act within the law.
violent acts/behaviour
▪ His dad terrified them all with his violent behaviour.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
criminal
▪ They chose to attract public attention and demonstrate contradictions in justice and the law by criminal acts.
▪ I am ashamed to think that you believe me capable of such a shameful and criminal act.
▪ Slaughtering of this magnitude is nothing short of a criminal act, indicating incompetence in policy and management chaos.
▪ Interception of cell phone calls has been a criminal act since 1986, when those devices were included in federal wiretap statutes.
▪ A further difficulty is the impossibility of including all criminal acts in a questionnaire or interview.
▪ The show uses video surveillance footage, interviews and re-enactments to focus on lamebrain criminal acts.
▪ Which means that you witnessed a criminal act however willing she was.
▪ Nevertheless, they do occur and occasional assaults and other criminal acts are committed.
double
▪ The act now took the form of a double act.
▪ The reason for this double act becomes obvious the minute you set off.
▪ It could have been an interesting double act but it was bunkered immediately by all the showbiz flannel.
▪ Bill used to be half of a double act with Dave Allen.
▪ They make a good double act in the Treasury team, where she is shadow Chief Secretary.
▪ And brimming with fun in bowler hats, the visitors raised more smiles than Downing Street's double act.
▪ Thankfully, the engine and gearbox make a great double act.
final
▪ Mellor's resignation was the final act in a drama running since July, when his romance with Antonia was exposed.
▪ In the final act Ricardo confronts his son with his horrible crimes.
▪ Looking down he saw the final fearful act of that day.
▪ The final act takes place in the square in front of Westminster Bridge.
▪ One of his final acts was to take Britain's Nigel Mansell from Williams.
▪ The final act was its dissolution.
▪ This was her final act of spite, to take the piece and leave Paige to face the consequences.
▪ Creed preceded the final act, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on the east stage.
hard
▪ A hard act to follow, but its stars are confident that the small screen version will prove just as popular.
▪ Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.
▪ It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.
▪ John's is, of course, a hard act to follow.
▪ There is no question that Mr Brown's will be an exceedingly hard act to follow.
▪ You've certainly set us a hard act to follow!
▪ A hard act to swallow ... Dangerous Dan and his latest flame.
▪ Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.
illegal
▪ The initial founding of a squatter settlement is, itself, an illegal act and, therefore, a challenge to authority.
▪ State action to prevent illegal and unauthorised acts of local authorities.
▪ The raid was an illegal act, without any authorisation by the United Nations.
simple
▪ One which caused trouble was the simple act of opening a window.
▪ By the simple act of hiding the desk something is clearly said about teaching and learning.
▪ The simple act of giving up a sedentary occupation brought about the improved the state of health.
▪ A simple act, maybe, but it changed the rules of engagement for ever.
▪ Why is it that the simple act of purchasing something can often be hell?
▪ New energy and resolve erupted from the simple act of moving their tiny toys out of doors!
▪ Even the simple act of observing a sleeper normally requires forgoing sleep oneself.
▪ But just the simple act of leafing through and talking about a book can help.
symbolic
▪ The deeply symbolic ritual act of treading the earth affirms the relationship of human beings to their native soil.
▪ It was as though that one, symbolic act gave him permission to live his life his way.
▪ Yet there could be no more symbolic act of defiance than a currency with a separate exchange rate against the rouble.
▪ The wearing of an armband to express certain views is the kind of symbolic act protected by that amendment.
▪ The symbolic act could not have been more significant.
unlawful
▪ There are two types of crime which will not suffice as the unlawful act: crimes of negligence and crimes of omission.
▪ Possessing a knife was not perse an unlawful act under the Prevention of Crime Act 1953, s.1.
▪ Where there is no unlawful act, there is no unlawful act manslaughter.
▪ The unlawful act was arson, and he was reckless as to the risk of injury.
▪ The requirement of mens rea for unlawful act manslaughter may be easily satisfied.
▪ If the accused kills by fire, the unlawful act is arson.
▪ A lawful act such as a killing in self-defence is not an unlawful act for this purpose.
violent
▪ We have, therefore to consider these other aspects of violent acts.
▪ Ultimately the batterer is himself tricked by his lustful appetite, and his violent acts inevitably escalate.
▪ Outrage at the injustices erupted in violent acts.
▪ By contrast, 1 percent of Channel 4 programmes contained violence, with an average frequency of one violent act per hour.
▪ Men were twice as likely as women to perceive those violent acts as improving the relationship.
▪ Police departments are accustomed to an increase in violent acts when the moon is fall.
■ NOUN
class
▪ But DataEase is definitely a class act that deserves its position.
▪ That was a class act to come in and ask.
▪ I doubt that she is much like the real Gertrude Lawrence but she is decidedly a class act.
▪ Running back Emmitt Smith is a class act and quarterback Troy Aikman is cool, tough and dignified.
▪ Stewart rates Gascoigne and Beardsley as the top class acts of the hundreds he appeared with at club level.
▪ Trenches Throughout everything, the divisions of class act as trenches as surely as those dug by the soldiers.
▪ They looked a class act and for once came away with a result to match.
▪ You're going to be a class act as Prime Minister, really you are.
riot
▪ Nearly all gone now, worse luck, and the guv'nor's arrived to read the riot act.
▪ One approach was to read these young people the riot act and let them repent or retreat.
▪ Afterwards, Waziri would read the riot act in Kinyankole, the smoke from the matooke grates swirling behind him.
▪ He then proceeded to read the riot act to his headstrong brother.
▪ After reining in the regional barons and tackling the business oligarchs, Mr Putin read the riot act to the generals.
▪ What good were riot acts being read?
speech
▪ In fact, he suggests that speech act theory and deconstruction complement, rather than contradict, each other.
▪ Students of literature who are sympathetic to, and at least partially acquainted with, speech act theory should find the arguments stimulating.
▪ Even resistant readers will find much informative discussion of speech act theory and related matters.
▪ An approach which tries to formulate how such knowledge is brought into play is speech act theory.
▪ Could speech act theory have helped them decide?
▪ This lack of explicitness will surely limit the significance of the book for researchers working in speech act theory and related fields.
▪ Of course, there is no reason why a book on speech act theory should discuss alternative approaches at all.
■ VERB
balance
▪ But it's a crucial balancing act where you have to prioritise on a daily basis.
▪ Using political power to reduce market inequalities requires a high-wire balancing act.
▪ This is a delicate balancing act for Mr Carr, however.
▪ Now that balancing act has become more precarious than ever.
▪ This is a tricky balancing act.
▪ President Clinton called attention to the broader issues with his veto of the balanced budget act.
▪ This meeting, he realized, was part of some kind of good cop, bad cop balancing act Giuliani was encouraging.
▪ That's a balancing act that few southwestern cities have managed -- as Tucson's crumbling streets and contaminated wells attest.
clean
▪ More recently Lou has cleaned up his act and started setting the world to rights.
▪ Citibank insists it has cleaned up its act.
▪ The industry was effectively warned to clean up its act or face legislation.
▪ Naming and shaming remains an option should the company not clean up its act.
▪ But he eventually sees their potential and cleans up his act just in time.
▪ Despite Mr Haider's grandiose, unbelievable last-minute pledges to clean up his act, there should be no wavering.
▪ Drivers whose vehicles give off more poisonous chemicals than are allowed have ten days to clean up their act.
▪ Legislation aimed at forcing the power firms to clean up their act is being fought tooth and nail by the polluters.
commit
▪ It is often said that an assault can be committed only by an act and that an omission is not sufficient.
▪ For a submariner, he had committed a grievous act -- mixing alcohol with duty.
▪ Now that the partisans were well organized in the Province of Parma they committed many acts of sabotage.
▪ What is the price tag for keeping decent, nonviolent people from having to commit the very act that Davis committed?
▪ The offence would be committed by a single act of distribution, and the recipient may be a single person.
▪ He was eventually convicted of committing an injurious act, a misdemeanor, police said.
▪ The Court of Appeal allowed the appellant's appeal against conviction of committing an act of gross indecency.
▪ The appellant, Norman Mattison, was charged with committing an act of gross indecency with his co-defendant.
follow
▪ A hard act to follow, but its stars are confident that the small screen version will prove just as popular.
▪ Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.
▪ I know that she will be a tough act to follow.
▪ Congress got in the act in the following years, lending the academy $ 255, 000 to expand the dairy.
▪ It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.
▪ Under the best of circumstances, Weiss' Marat-Sade is a difficult two acts to follow.
▪ John's is, of course, a hard act to follow.
▪ There is no question that Mr Brown's will be an exceedingly hard act to follow.
pass
▪ Once Parliament has passed an act, it becomes the law of the land.
▪ At the same time, Congress passed an act reducing tariff rates.
▪ She passed several acts to make legal strikes all but impossible, and to imprison her opponents at will.
perform
▪ Its purpose Augean - no less than to perform an act of reparation for the sins of students everywhere.
▪ He was like a robot kitchen helper, he sometimes thought, who performed acts without understanding what he was doing.
▪ There's always a reason why a person performs the murder act.
▪ Kronos performs an equally strange act.
▪ Instead he will, in best bib and tucker, be performing his last official act as the Masters champion.
▪ Consequently the mayoral incumbent must perform a delicate juggling act to maintain constituent support.
▪ It is used in respect of sacred trees, shrines, etc., and is performed as an act of reverence or respect.
▪ Scrapbooks and bottles of paste and cutout articles of the young Dove braving gales in canoes, performing heroic acts.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
act as a brake on sth
▪ In April 1992 they persuaded Boris Yeltsin to put three industrialists into the government to act as a brake on the free-marketeers.
▪ Post-war development of parachutes acting as brakes on jet aircraft are also covered in this rarely written about subject.
▪ To what extent do girls act as brakes on, or motivators of, delinquent behaviour in masculine adolescent gang-culture, for example?
▪ Unfortunately, widespread foot-dragging continues to act as a brake on debt relief.
act/play the goat
acting manager/head teacher/director etc
an act of faith
▪ Allowing Ken to be in charge of the project was a total act of faith.
▪ It is, even, a bit of an act of faith comparing two concurrent campaigns' performance.
▪ It was an act of faith to open up and know that we might not have any money two weeks later.
▪ It was by an act of faith in his science that a trim Shepelev crawled into the chamber and sealed the door.
▪ Six were at sea, on the business of trade - an act of faith that he might have cause to regret.
▪ The objection to the claim is that it is mere assertion or, more kindly, an act of faith.
▪ There is no continuous evolution towards it; it requires, somewhere along the line, an act of faith on the part of management.
▪ This is where boating turns into an act of faith.
▪ To conclude that the universe exists because it permits us to exist is an act of faith, not reason.
be a hard act to follow
▪ Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.
▪ Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.
▪ It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.
▪ Judith will be a hard act to follow.
clean up your act
▪ Gwen finally told her troubled son to clean up his act or get out of her house.
▪ She told her son to clean up his act or move out.
▪ Tish has really cleaned up her act - she doesn't drink or smoke pot any more.
▪ But he eventually sees their potential and cleans up his act just in time.
▪ Citibank insists it has cleaned up its act.
▪ Despite Mr Haider's grandiose, unbelievable last-minute pledges to clean up his act, there should be no wavering.
▪ Drivers whose vehicles give off more poisonous chemicals than are allowed have ten days to clean up their act.
▪ Legislation aimed at forcing the power firms to clean up their act is being fought tooth and nail by the polluters.
▪ More recently Lou has cleaned up his act and started setting the world to rights.
▪ Naming and shaming remains an option should the company not clean up its act.
▪ The industry was effectively warned to clean up its act or face legislation.
deeds/acts etc of derring-do
read (sb) the riot act
▪ Stephanie read Ted the riot act for seeing his old girlfriend.
smarten up your act/ideas
▪ Despite the encouraging figures, the Chunnel has prompted ferry companies to smarten up their act, and offer better deals.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a criminal act
▪ a one-act play
▪ an act of Congress
▪ He was injured in a circus act that went wrong.
▪ In Act 2, Ross and Diane get married.
▪ Kinison's outrageous comedy act
▪ Our next act is a young singer all the way from Dallas, Texas.
▪ Part of his act involves dressing up as a woman.
▪ Saving the boys from the river was an act of great courage.
▪ the 1991 Prevention of Terrorism Act
▪ the Civil Rights Act
▪ The festival will be an all-day event featuring a lot of different acts.
▪ The Wagner Act prohibited employers from firing workers for joining a union.
▪ The whole nation is very grateful for the numerous acts of kindness rendered in this time of crisis.
▪ Tony tries to be so macho, but it's just an act.
▪ We condemn all acts of violence, no matter what the reason.
▪ We used to do a comedy act together.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A lawful act such as a killing in self-defence is not an unlawful act for this purpose.
▪ I recently saw a circus act with contortionists folding themselves in amazing ways.
▪ Naming and shaming remains an option should the company not clean up its act.
▪ Nicasio gave Cecilia poisoned water, believing she would reveal his perfidious acts.
▪ One of his final acts was to take Britain's Nigel Mansell from Williams.
▪ Some lawyers believed this act violated the establishment clause.
▪ The act of physically putting the drive in the computer is relatively easy.
▪ When her act split up, he offered her a permanent studio within the premises where she could run her own classes.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ He does not, but his genes act as if they do.
▪ These verbal clues act as links between major and subordinate points.
▪ And I could act as if running a new household was an ambition f could concentrate on and fall in love with.
▪ After a period of training, co-counsellors are paired off, and thereafter act as both counsellor and client to each other.
▪ At times, she became panicky and acted as if she were seeing something scary or having something scary happen to her.
▪ These people need to be enabled to act as representatives for their agencies and as link-persons with other agencies.
▪ These channels act as on-ramps to the Internet or other on-line information services.
decisively
▪ The bluelight was supposed to give her foreknowledge so she could act decisively.
▪ Thirty years ago, farmers say, the government acted decisively and quickly to contain hoof and mouth.
▪ Pressure to act decisively came, among others, from Mr Smith's predecessor, Neil Kinnock.
▪ Too few managers and supervisors had learned to act decisively not withstanding their new decision-making authority.
▪ When he felt fully in command of the situation, he acted decisively.
▪ The heads of Great Groups have to act decisively, but never arbitrarily.
on
▪ Since 1984, 22 Bills have not been acted on.
▪ Thus this second part is simply the tape that supposed to act on.
▪ Many general practitioners still need to be convinced that their views will be listened to and where appropriate acted on.
▪ Have they acted on users' suggestions for improvements?
▪ A concrete choice could be the four-momentum of a test body acted on by gravitational and non-gravitational forces.
▪ And he continued his signature practice of appointing teams to come up with recommendations that he could act on quickly.
▪ They are really promises - promises intended to be binding, intended to be acted on, and in fact acted on.
▪ Computers and the Brain A conventional computer is typically a single processor acting on explicitly programmed instructions.
out
▪ She has become a parody of herself, doomed to spend the rest of her life acting out her own mythical qualities.
▪ They acted out of a conscience that patriots despised but at least could understand.
▪ A reaction to these difficulties may be withdrawal, apathy, or acting out behaviour.
▪ Other children act out in school and have nightmares, the parents say.
▪ The market is further enhanced by live performers who act out the varied timeless arts.
▪ The dialogue-based text is ideal for reading aloud in class or for encouraging pupils to act out the stories.
▪ There have been several cases in the past where it appeared people were acting out violent scenes from films.
▪ Magistrates are also reported to want to reconstruct the raid using volunteers to act out the roles.
quickly
▪ Mr Keating is being urged to act quickly to avoid years of uncertainty while new claims are fought through the courts.
▪ Democrats are pushing Woods and other Republicans to act quickly.
▪ But police say they had to act quickly to protect staff and shoppers.
▪ The group said it was acting quickly because it feared that the new law would have an immediate effect on the Internet.
▪ He hadn't acted quickly enough.
▪ Major airlines always act quickly to nip back.
▪ They have to plan and act quickly to prevent any spread to other animals or humans.
▪ Marquez, realizing he must act quickly, marched toward Queretaro.
responsibly
▪ Both require political intervention: the market alone has no capacity to act responsibly or intelligently.
▪ There is a simple lesson here: give a student a real responsibility, and he or she will act responsibly.
▪ You can't force him to act responsibly but you can make sure he doesn't treat you like a doormat.
▪ He is acting responsibly, being faithful to his employer.
▪ That being so, the vice-chancellors are acting responsibly to explore alternative sources of funding.
▪ A vote for the Greens will put pressure on the other parties to act responsibly.
together
▪ The two experimental set-ups were different, incompatible, and so could not act together.
▪ Fifthly, the periodic meetings of Great Powers which together acted as self-appointed guarantors of international law and order.
▪ It had been unthinkable that either one of them could be ignored, much less the two acting together.
▪ That's why I think it could be a group of them acting together.
▪ The strong impression I had was of a people who acted together because of a preconceived plan: a people programmed.
▪ Ducal servants from all areas acted together.
▪ Compassion is feeling and acting together.
upon
▪ These recommendations have already been acted upon.
▪ Speaking a language involves producing sounds for others to hear, understand, and act upon.
▪ It has become customary to assume that the subject is that which acts and the object is that which is acted upon.
▪ The suggestion was acted upon at once.
▪ If the government acted upon this report the Raika stood to gain certain privileges.
▪ Headley also illustrates what could happen if operational intelligence was rapidly gathered and acted upon.
▪ The Enlightenment made claims for equality that waited to be acted upon.
▪ Issues not subsequently acted upon by Congress would be resubmitted for the voters to decide.
■ NOUN
advice
▪ But at the moment Thamesdown Borough Council isn't acting on that advice ... because its worried about the legal implications.
▪ She was acting on the advice of her therapist in speaking thus.
▪ The only reason the bank advanced was that it was acting on the advice of the Federal Reserve.
▪ In performing this duty the directors usually act on the advice of the issuing house and the lawyers acting.
▪ He added progress would be limited until housing and social services merged and acted on the advice of clients.
▪ No one knows what society would be like if everyone acted on the advice of those who openly advocate it.
▪ Here the garrison, acting on advice from Philip, refused to admit him.
agent
▪ And within this relationship local authorities were seen as decentralized administrative agents, acting at the behest of the centre.
▪ But it was unlikely the police agents acted without the approval of their superiors.
▪ The two parties may agree a price for the land or ask an agent to act on their behalf.
▪ Sales agents acting on behalf of manufacturers, are vigilant in preventing retailers from selling at lower prices by threatening to cut future supplies.
▪ The people to be interviewed are known as freight forwarding agents, who act for individual exporters and importers.
▪ Yesterday, a spokesman for the Shrewsbury-based agents acting for Hafodunos Estates said discussions were continuing.
authority
▪ Parliament has expressly given him power to intervene when the local authority is acting unreasonably.
▪ The board has authority to act in several ways.
▪ Parents and local authorities are expected to act in partnership motivated by the child's best interests.
▪ He said the Attorney General's office overstepped its authority and acted improperly.
▪ On what authority was International Rescue acting?
▪ H grants Caltrans the authority to act.
▪ The dependence thesis does not claim that authorities always act for dependent reasons, but merely that they should do so.
▪ To deal with disputes over such matters, regional health authorities will act as conciliators.
behalf
▪ In due course you should find ways to reward the achievements of those who have acted on your behalf.
▪ The governors will often give the chairman discretion to act on their behalf.
▪ They agreed that they would really be acting on Altus's behalf.
▪ If there was an attempt to steal the election, it was by the Florida court acting on Gore's behalf.
▪ He would act on your behalf to the chief constable.
catalyst
▪ Such evidence may also act as a catalyst for improving the methods by which meta-analyses are conducted.
▪ They act as a catalyst for a company and help it to focus on a higher level of performance.
▪ As its name suggests, the dual perspective argues that rights and movements actually encourage each other, acting as mutual catalysts.
▪ The developer or his land buyer should act as the catalyst in such situations.
▪ It also acted as the catalyst to form fossil fuels from tiny animals millions of years ago.
deterrent
▪ The black and white stripes of the skunks act as a powerful deterrent, even from a great distance.
▪ In addition, divided catalogues or separate classified catalogues could also have acted as a deterrent to subject searching.
▪ This sentence certainly will not act as a deterrent to other drunk drivers.
▪ Whether that would act as a deterrent is, of course, another question altogether.
▪ A half squadron of gendarmes has been stationed in Maripasoula, their presence supposedly acting as a deterrent.
faith
▪ The Vendor ought to act in good faith and disclose any such matters.
▪ School officials can lose this qualified privilege if they act in bad faith or without regard for whether the statements are true.
▪ And some councils are acting in bad faith.
▪ If you act in good faith you might get out of this with your skin on.
▪ Such a State should act in good faith so as not to frustrate the objects of the treaty.
▪ Any person who acts in good faith will not, however, be required to make repayment.
role
▪ They will act in a facilitating role to help in focusing on more general social and economic need.
▪ But men do not feature prominently as family members acting in their familial role.
▪ The company secretarial department of the firm can and have acted in this role on occasions.
▪ Crowe brings much more than acting to the role.
▪ How have the parents acted as role models?
▪ Hunters might seek to kill them, but they are quite capable of turning the tables and acting out the agent role.
▪ You may act as a role model and a mentor to others.
▪ Magistrates are also reported to want to reconstruct the raid using volunteers to act out the roles.
solicitor
▪ It is envisaged that the wife and the new husband will have a solicitor who acts for both of them.
▪ Given that these defendants are unlikely to know the names of solicitors the responsibility for acting quickly settles on the duty solicitor.
▪ A solicitor or accountant can act as an Executor if you so wish.
▪ You are strongly advised to consult a solicitor without delay to act for you in your appeal.
▪ On both occasions the solicitor had acted without authority and the transactions were frauds on the bank.
▪ The effect may be to limit greatly the opportunity for solicitors to act as advocates in more serious criminal cases.
▪ Two Kirkwall solicitors were acting for the four families.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
act as a brake on sth
▪ In April 1992 they persuaded Boris Yeltsin to put three industrialists into the government to act as a brake on the free-marketeers.
▪ Post-war development of parachutes acting as brakes on jet aircraft are also covered in this rarely written about subject.
▪ To what extent do girls act as brakes on, or motivators of, delinquent behaviour in masculine adolescent gang-culture, for example?
▪ Unfortunately, widespread foot-dragging continues to act as a brake on debt relief.
act/play the goat
acting manager/head teacher/director etc
an act of faith
▪ Allowing Ken to be in charge of the project was a total act of faith.
▪ It is, even, a bit of an act of faith comparing two concurrent campaigns' performance.
▪ It was an act of faith to open up and know that we might not have any money two weeks later.
▪ It was by an act of faith in his science that a trim Shepelev crawled into the chamber and sealed the door.
▪ Six were at sea, on the business of trade - an act of faith that he might have cause to regret.
▪ The objection to the claim is that it is mere assertion or, more kindly, an act of faith.
▪ There is no continuous evolution towards it; it requires, somewhere along the line, an act of faith on the part of management.
▪ This is where boating turns into an act of faith.
▪ To conclude that the universe exists because it permits us to exist is an act of faith, not reason.
deeds/acts etc of derring-do
play/act the fool
▪ Don't play the fool with me. You know why I moved away.
▪ But the trouble with the picture is that it does absolutely nothing with its various prognostications except play the fool with them.
▪ Dominic and Lee had been playing the fool as only young men can.
▪ Don't go acting the fool, Carl.
▪ He acted the fool, losing at first to whet their appetites, but in an hour emptied his three victims' purses.
▪ He likes me to play the fool.
▪ In class he never played the fool, never challenged the teacher.
▪ Narouz had been angry, first with the girl for playing the fool and then with the eunuch for not finding her.
▪ Those on the path of mastery are willing to take chances, play the fool....
read (sb) the riot act
▪ Stephanie read Ted the riot act for seeing his old girlfriend.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a fast-acting decongestant
▪ Congress must act soon on this vital legislation.
▪ Critics accuse the company of acting too slowly in notifying residents of the chemical leak.
▪ Despite the crisis, the Commission seems unwilling to act.
▪ He has been accused of acting like a dictator.
▪ He learned to act when he was in highschool.
▪ I acted more out of compassion than anything else.
▪ In recent years Lewis has been acting in television dramas.
▪ It takes a couple of minutes for the drug to act.
▪ Larry was acting really weird.
▪ Morganstern claims he was acting in self-defense.
▪ She acts as if she owns the place and we're her servants.
▪ That woman just can't act!
▪ The picture has a good script and is wonderfully acted.
▪ The report says the officers acted professionally and responsibly.
▪ Tina's been acting very strangely lately.
▪ We must act before the situation gets out of control.
▪ You're acting stupid and I don't want to talk to you anymore.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As often as not, the government would then act against the loyalists to prevent the increase in tension.
▪ Bernard in the twelfth century: The river enters the abbey as much as the well acting as a check allows.
▪ But it seemed to me that most of us were just acting.
▪ But there are many other ways in which we could act.
▪ Even in towns women did not normally act as traders.
▪ It is not the world we seem to experience and act in.
▪ It will no longer act as a spring but at least it will give the cabin a more solid base.
▪ Morgan Stanley will act as co-global coordinator.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Act

Act \Act\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Acted; p. pr. & vb. n. Acting.] [L. actus, p. p. of agere to drive, lead, do; but influenced by E. act, n.]

  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.

Act

Act \Act\ ([a^]kt), n. [L. actus, fr. agere to drive, do: cf. F. acte. See Agent.]

  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. [1913 Webster] Hence, in specific uses:

    1. 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.

    2. A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has been done.
      --Abbott.

    3. 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.

    4. 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. [Obs.]

    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 (doing). ``In act to shoot.''
    --Dryden.

    This woman was taken . . . in the very act.
    --John viii.

  4. Act of attainder. (Law) See Attainder.

    Act of bankruptcy (Law), an act of a debtor which renders him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt.

    Act of faith. (Ch. Hist.) See Auto-da-F['e].

    Act of God (Law), 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.

Act

Act \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.
    --Pope.

  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.
    --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

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
act

mid-15c., "to act upon or adjudicate" a legal case; 1590s in the theatrical sense, from Latin actus, past participle of agere (see act (n.)). To act up "be unruly" is from 1903. To act out "behave anti-socially" (1974) is from psychiatric sense of "expressing one's unconscious impulses or desires." Related: Acted; acting.

act

late 14c., "a thing done," from Old French acte "(official) document," and directly from Latin actus "a doing, a driving, impulse; a part in a play, act," and actum "a thing done," originally a legal term, both from agere "to do, set in motion, drive, urge, chase, stir up," from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move" (cognates: Greek agein "to lead, guide, drive, carry off," agon "assembly, contest in the games," agogos "leader;" Sanskrit ajati "drives," ajirah "moving, active;" Old Norse aka "to drive;" Middle Irish ag "battle").\n

\nTheatrical ("part of a play," 1510s) and legislative (early 15c.) senses of the word also were in Latin. Meaning "display of exaggerated behavior" is from 1928. In the act "in the process" is from 1590s, perhaps originally from the 16c. sense of the act as "sexual intercourse." Act of God "uncontrollable natural force" recorded by 1726.\n\nAn act of God is an accident which arises from a cause which operates without interference or aid from man (1 Pars. on Cont. 635); the loss arising wherefrom cannot be guarded against by the ordinary exertions of human skill and prudence so as to prevent its effect.

[William Wait, "General Principles of the Law," Albany, 1879]

Wiktionary
act

n. A certain standardized college admissions test in the United States, originally called the (term American College Test). n. (initialism of Australian Capital Territory lang=en dot=), a federal territory of Australia.

WordNet
act
  1. n. a legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body [syn: enactment]

  2. something that people do or cause to happen [syn: human action, human activity]

  3. a subdivision of a play or opera or ballet

  4. a short theatrical performance that is part of a longer program; "he did his act three times every evening"; "she had a catchy little routine"; "it was one of the best numbers he ever did" [syn: routine, number, turn, bit]

  5. a manifestation of insincerity; "he put on quite an act for her benefit"

act
  1. v. perform an action, or work out or perform (an action); "think before you act"; "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" [syn: move] [ant: refrain]

  2. behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself; "You should act like an adult"; "Don't behave like a fool"; "What makes her do this way?"; "The dog acts ferocious, but he is really afraid of people" [syn: behave, do]

  3. play a role or part; "Gielgud played Hamlet"; "She wants to act Lady Macbeth, but she is too young for the role"; "She played the servant to her husband's master" [syn: play, represent]

  4. discharge one's duties; "She acts as the chair"; "In what capacity are you acting?"

  5. pretend to have certain qualities or state of mind; "He acted the idiot"; "She plays deaf when the news are bad" [syn: play, act as]

  6. be suitable for theatrical performance; "This scene acts well"

  7. have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or expected; "The voting process doesn't work as well as people thought"; "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" [syn: work]

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

  9. behave unnaturally or affectedly; "She's just acting" [syn: dissemble, pretend]

  10. perform on a stage or theater; "She acts in this play"; "He acted in `Julius Caesar'"; "I played in `A Christmas Carol'" [syn: play, roleplay, playact]

Wikipedia
Act (band)

Act were a short-lived synthpop group signed to ZTT Records in the late 1980s, and comprising British musician Thomas Leer and German ex- Propaganda vocalist Claudia Brücken. Besides synthpop and disco, the group were also influenced by psychedelic rock and musical theatre. Lyrically, their songs tended to be concerned with decadence and the moral bankruptcy. The band dissolved shortly after the release of their first album Laughter, Tears and Rage in 1988.

Act

Act or ACT may mean:

  • Act (band), a British band
  • Act (document), a document recording the legality of a transaction or contract
  • Act of Parliament, Act of Congress or Act of Tynwald, a statute or law passed by a legislature
  • Act (drama), a segment of a performance, such as a play or opera
  • Act or Acts, an obsolete name for the defence of theses at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge
  • Act! CRM, a customer relationship management software
  • Acting, action of an actor in a theatrical performance
  • Acting (law), in law when someone is acting in a position of higher expenses
  • Acting (rank), in the military when someone assumes a higher rank temporarily
  • Act or S-act, the action of a monoid on a set, or a semiautomaton
  • ISO 639-3 language code for Achterhooks
  • Acetylcholine, (ACt/ACh) a neurotransmitter

Acts may mean:

  • Acts of the Apostles, a book of the Christian New Testament
ACT (test)

The ACT ( ; originally an abbreviation of American College Testing) college readiness assessment is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT. The ACT originally consisted of four tests: English, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Natural Sciences. In 1989, the Social Studies test was changed into a Reading section (which included a Social Studies subsection) and the Natural Sciences test was renamed the Science Reasoning test, with more emphasis on problem solving skills. In February 2005, an optional Writing test was added to the ACT, mirroring changes to the SAT that took place later in March of the same year. In the spring of 2015, the ACT will start to be offered as a computer-based test that will incorporate some optional Constructed Response Questions; the test content, composite score, and multiple choice format will not be affected by these changes. The test will continue to be offered in the paper format for schools that are not ready to transition to computer testing.

The ACT has seen a gradual increase in the number of test takers since its inception, and in 2011 the ACT surpassed the SAT for the first time in total test takers; that year, 1,666,017 students took the ACT and 1,664,479 students took the SAT. All four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. accept the ACT, but different institutions place different emphases on standardized tests such as the ACT, compared to other factors of evaluation such as class rank, GPA, and extracurricular activities. The main four tests are scored individually on a scale of 1–36, and a Composite score is provided which is the whole number average of the four scores. Note that a composite score of 32.5 rounds up to a 33.

Act (drama)

An act is a division or unit of a theatre work, including a play, film, opera, and musical theatre. The number of acts in a theatrical work can range from one to five or more, depending on how the writer structures the story. The duration of an act usually ranges from 30 to 90 minutes, but may be as short as 10 minutes.

The word act can also be used for major sections of other entertainment, such as variety shows, television programs, music hall performances, and cabaret.

ACT (audio format)

ACT is a lossy ADPCM 8 kbit/s compressed audio format recorded by most Chinese MP3 and MP4 players with a recording function, and voice recorders.

Many models of recorder that use the ACT format do so only for their lowest-quality recording setting; if the quality setting is increased then a different format, typically WAV, is used, creating much larger files.

There are different versions of ACT; files produced by later devices could not be read by any free standard audio player and converter software, only by the supplied MP3 utilities .

ACT (NASDAQ)

ACT, or Automated Confirmation of Transactions, is a system for reporting and clearing trades in the over-the-counter (OTC) and NASDAQ securities markets. In contrast to Qualified Special Representative (QSR) clearing via the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC), which requires multiple relationships between brokers, dealers, and clearing firms, ACT facilitates and simplifies the process of clearing by providing a single counterparty to interact with.

ACT offers a risk management system that allows clearing firms to monitor the activity of their clients. This tool is unique within the clearing business.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) also refers to ACT as the Trade Reporting Facility (TRF).

Act (document)

An act is an instrument that records a fact or something that has been said, done, or agreed. Acts generally take the form of legal instruments of writing that have probative value and executory force. They are usually accepted as self-authenticating demonstrative evidence in court proceedings, though with the precarious status of notaries public and their acts under common law, this is not always so.

Common types of acts are legislative, judicial, and notarial acts.

Usage examples of "act".

I should hereafter act in contravention of this abjuration, I here and now bind and oblige myself to suffer the due punishments for backsliders, however sever they may be.

NARAL Pro-Choice America even decided not to oppose a bill that would require doctors to anesthetize babies being aborted after the twentieth week of pregnancy, called the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act.

Yet during abreaction at one point she was acting out holding the knife and doing the slashing.

Venice edition of the Councils contains all the acts of the synods, and history of Photius: they are abridged, with a faint tinge of prejudice or prudence, by Dupin and Fleury.

These original and authentic acts I have translated and abridged with freedom, yet with fidelity.

The latter privilege was deemed to have been abridged by city officials who acted in pursuance of a void ordinance which authorized a director of safety to refuse permits for parades or assemblies on streets or parks whenever he believed riots could thereby be avoided and who forcibly evicted from their city union organizers who sought to use the streets and parks for the aforementioned purposes.

Up till now, to his own surprise, all three of his fellow absconders had acted as if he were still one of them, in equal peril from outsiders-or settlers, like the Meldrums-and therefore bent, as they were, on escape.

Soul towards the higher, the agent, and except in so far as the conjunction is absolutely necessary, to sever the agent from the instrument, the body, so that it need not forever have its Act upon or through this inferior.

What has such an adhesive to act upon if there is absolutely no given magnitude of real earth to which it may bind particle after particle in its business of producing the continuous mass?

Their structure is remarkable, and their functions complex, for they secrete, absorb, and are acted on by various stimulants.

Or can we, by examining his case with intelligence and with charity, and then by acting with charity too, begin to help all abused children, including his own, to free themselves from the burden of their childhood?

Banish coming down hard on top of the girl with the baby and the gun and Abies falling forward from the act of Fagin being blown back off his feet and settling still on the ground.

Indeed it is not in the public interest that straightforwardness should be extirpated root and branch, for the presence of a small modicum of sincerity acts as a wholesome irritant to the academicism of the greatest number, stimulating it to consciousness of its own happy state, and giving it something to look down upon.

Paris the Pope, who was still at Fontainebleau, determined to accede to an arrangement, and to sign an act which the Emperor conceived would terminate the differences between them.

Even in such acts as this acertain amount of decorum was to be observed.