What is "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\ ([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\, 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

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.

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]

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.

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"

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]

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 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

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.

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 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, 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).

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.