Action
Action ({not transcribed}) , noun
[Old French action, Latin actio, from agere to do. See Act.]
1.
A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action.
One wise in council, one in action brave.
2.
An act; a thing done; a deed; an enterprise. (pl.): Habitual deeds; hence, conduct; behavior; demeanor.
The Lord is a Good of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
3.
The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.
4.
Movement; as, the horse has a spirited action.
5.
(Mechanics) Effective motion; also, mechanism; as, the breech action of a gun.
6.
(Physiology) Any one of the active processes going on in an organism; the performance of a function; as, the action of the heart, the muscles, or the gastric juice.
7.
(Orat.) Gesticulation; the external deportment of the speaker, or the suiting of his attitude, voice, gestures, and countenance, to the subject, or to the feelings.
8.
(Painting & Sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
9.
(a) (Law) A suit or process, by which a demand is made of a right in a court of justice; in a broad sense, a judicial proceeding for the enforcement or protection of a right, the redress or prevention of a wrong, or the punishment of a public offense.
(b)
(Law) A right of action; as, the law gives an action for every claim.
10.
(Commerce) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds; hence, in the plural, equivalent to stocks. [A Gallicism; Obsolete]
The Euripus of funds and actions.
11.
An engagement between troops in war, whether on land or water; a battle; a fight; as, a general action, a partial action.
12.
(Music) The mechanical contrivance by means of which the impulse of the player's finger is transmitted to the strings of a pianoforte or to the valve of an organ pipe. — Grove
To poke the fire is an act, to reconcile friends who have quarreled is a praiseworthy action.
Collocations (2)
Quantity of action (Physics) , the product of the mass of a body by the space it runs through, and its velocity.