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The Collaborative International Dictionary
method acting

Method \Meth"od\, n. [F. m['e]thode, L. methodus, fr. Gr. meqodos method, investigation following after; meta` after + "odo`s way.]

  1. An orderly procedure or process; regular manner of doing anything; hence, manner; way; mode; as, a method of teaching languages; a method of improving the mind.
    --Addison.

  2. Orderly arrangement, elucidation, development, or classification; clear and lucid exhibition; systematic arrangement peculiar to an individual.

    Though this be madness, yet there's method in it.
    --Shak.

    All method is a rational progress, a progress toward an end.
    --Sir W. Hamilton.

  3. (Nat. Hist.) Classification; a mode or system of classifying natural objects according to certain common characteristics; as, the method of Theophrastus; the method of Ray; the Linn[ae]an method.

  4. A technique used in acting in which the actor tries to identify with the individual personality of the specific character being portrayed, so as to provide a realistic rendering of the character's role. Also called the Method, method acting, the Stanislavsky Method or Stanislavsky System.

    Syn: Order; system; rule; regularity; way; manner; mode; course; process; means.

    Usage: Method, Mode, Manner. Method implies arrangement; mode, mere action or existence. Method is a way of reaching a given end by a series of acts which tend to secure it; mode relates to a single action, or to the form which a series of acts, viewed as a whole, exhibits. Manner is literally the handling of a thing, and has a wider sense, embracing both method and mode. An instructor may adopt a good method of teaching to write; the scholar may acquire a bad mode of holding his pen; the manner in which he is corrected will greatly affect his success or failure.

Wiktionary
method acting

n. An acting technique in which the actor fully immerses themselves into the character they are playing.

Wikipedia
Method acting

In the dramatic arts, method acting refers to a range of techniques for training actors to achieve better characterizations of the characters they play, as formulated by Lee Strasberg. These techniques can be traced to Constantin Stanislavski's ideas, formulated in the early 20th century. A practitioner of method acting is called a method actor.

Usage examples of "method acting".

The 'sincere' stuff the Canon goes in for is Method Acting -- look in your guts and fish out what you find there -- and you can guess what most of it is.

I could not hear him scream or see his expression, but he did an amazing piece of extemporaneous Method acting that let me know the agony he was in.

I worked on all of them-method acting, of course-reluctant, have to be forced, then gradually your passion overcomes you.

Mike Stearns was on stage now, and the common folk of his new times did not appreciate method acting.

Personally, I use something akin to Method Acting, or maybe it's a form of benign schizophrenia, but I sort of become my narrator and the other main characters in the book.