action

Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.

Adjective

  1. arrogant

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti Proto-Italic *agō Latin agō Latin āctum Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin āctiō Old French aucionbor. Middle English accioun English action From Middle English accioun, accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō(n) (“act of doing or making”), from āct(us) + action suffix -iō(n), perfect passive participle of agere (“do, act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti. See also act, active. By surface analysis, act + -ion.

Forms

more action most action

Interjection

  1. Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.
    • The director yelled ‘Action!’ after the cameras started rolling.

    Antonyms: cut

Forms

action!

Noun

  1. The effort of performing or doing something.
  2. Something done, often so as to accomplish a purpose.

    Synonyms: deed

    Coordinate Terms: occurrence state of being

  3. A way of motion or functioning.
    • Knead bread with a rocking action.
  4. Fast-paced activity.
    • a movie full of exciting action
  5. The way in which a mechanical device acts when used; especially a firearm.
    • Pressing a piano key causes the action of the hammer on the string.

    1. (firearms) The way in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism.

      • pump-action shotgun
  6. A physical mechanism.
    • Spinola was hovering about the external fittings of the figure with unusual fussiness. When at length he released the left hand it seemed for an almost perceptible moment that the action hung. Then the arm descended and...
  7. The mechanism, that is the set of moving mechanical parts, of a keyboard instrument, like a piano, which transfers the motion of the key to the sound-making device.
    • The run in bar 12 is almost impossible with this piano's heavy action.
  8. The distance separating the strings and the fingerboard on a string instrument.
    • You're getting fret buzz because the action is too low.
  9. Sexual intercourse.
    • She gave him some action.
    • I hope to get a bit of action with the hot guy from the club.

    Synonyms: aphrodisia carnal knowledge coitus coition commerce commixtion congress conjunction connection consummation conversation copulation coupling intercourse intimacy intimate relations intromission joining lovemaking lustmaking mating mounting pareunia penetration

  10. Combat.
    • He saw some action in the Korean War.
  11. A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).

    Synonyms: suit action cause lawsuit litigation

  12. A way in which each element of some algebraic structure transforms some other structure or set, in a way which respects the structure of the first. Formally, this may be seen as a morphism from the first structure into some structure of endomorphisms of the second; for example, a group action of a group G on a set S can be seen as a group homomorphism from G into the set of bijections on S (which form a group under function composition), while a module M over a ring R can be defined as an abelian group together with a ring homomorphism from R into the ring of group endomorphisms of M (which is also called the action of R on M).

Forms

actions

Synonyms

act action acting cocky deed doing

Antonyms

inaction omission

Hyponyms

action at a distance direct action social action exploit maneuver misdeed performance perpetration

Related

act agency agent deed

Derived

actant actionable action adventure actional action doll actionee actioner actionfest action figure action film action-forcing action game action group action hero action hoe action house actionism actionist action item actionize actionless actionlet actionlike action man

Verb

  1. To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
    • ‘Here, give me the minutes of Monday’s meeting. I’ll action your points for you while you get on and sort out the open day.’ - 2004, Ros Jay, Richard Templar, “Fast thinking: project”, in Fast Thinking Manager's Manual,...
    • Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen. - 2005, Fritz Liebreich, “The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in...
    • HMRC said that one reason they had not actioned her appeal was because she had said in her appeal form ‘I am appealing against the overpayment for childcare for 2003-04, 2004-05’, thus implying she was disputing her...
  2. To initiate a legal action against someone.
    • ‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’ - 1856, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England, new revised edition,...
    • “Scrip threatened me at first with an action for slander—he spoke of actions to the wrong man though—action! no, no no. I should have actioned him—ha! ha! [...]” - 1844, Robert Mackenzie Daniel, The Grave Digger: A...
    • I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny. - 1871, Michael Shermer, quoting Alfred Russell Wallace, In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred...

Forms

actions actioning actioned