action
See also: Action
English
Etymology
From Middle English accion, from Old French action, from Latin āctiō (“act of doing or making”), from āctus, perfect passive participle of agō (“do, act”), + action suffix -iō; see act.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈæk.ʃən/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ækʃən
- Hyphenation: ac‧tion
Noun
action (countable and uncountable, plural actions)
- Something done so as to accomplish a purpose.
- A way of motion or functioning.
- Knead bread with a rocking action.
- Fast-paced activity.
- a movie full of exciting action
- A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.
- a rifle action
- (music): 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.[1]
- (slang) sexual intercourse.
- She gave him some action.
- The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on the guitar.
- (military) Combat.
- He saw some action in the Korean War.
- (law) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
- (mathematics) A mapping from a pairing of mathematical objects to one of them, respecting their individual structures. The pairing is typically a Cartesian product or a tensor product. The object that is not part of the output is said to act on the other object. In any given context, action is used as an abbreviation for a more fully named notion, like group action or left group action.
- (physics) The product of energy and time, esp. the product of the Lagrangian and time.
- 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.
- (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
- (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
- (business, obsolete, a Gallicism) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
- Burke
- The Euripus of funds and actions.
- Burke
Hyponyms
- action at a distance
- direct action
- social action
Derived terms
Terms derived from action (noun)
Descendants
- → Russian: экшн (ekšn)
Translations
something done so as to accomplish a purpose
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way of motion or functioning
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fast-paced activity
mechanism
slang: intercourse
military: combat
law: a charge
homomorphism
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
See also
- deed
- Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take
Interjection
action
- Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually an act or scene of a theatric performance.
- The director yelled ‘Action!’ before the camera started rolling.
Translations
signifying the start of something
Verb
action (third-person singular simple present actions, present participle actioning, simple past and past participle actioned)
- (transitive, management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
- 2005, Fritz Liebreich, “The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in theory and practice”, in Britain's Navel and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948, Routledge, →ISBN, page 196:
- Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.
- 2007, Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, “Case study: 11257”, in Tax Credits: Getting it wrong? 5th report session 2006-2007, The Stationery Office, →ISBN, Chapter 2: Changes and developments since June 2005, page 26:
- 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 ‘overpayment’.
- (transitive, chiefly archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.
- 1856, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England, New Revised Edition edition, Stringer & Townsend, Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own, page 270:
- ‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’
- 1844, Robert Mackenzie Daniel, The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress, volume I, T. C. Newby, Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady, pages 189-190:
- “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! [...]”
- 1871, Michael Shermer, quoting Alfred Russell Wallace, In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russell Wallace, Oxford University Press US, published 2002, →ISBN, Chapter 10. Heretic Personality, page 261:
- I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.
- 1996, Darryl Mark Ogier, “Discipline: Enforcement”, in Reformation and Society in Guernsey, Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, Part Two: The Calvinist Regime, page 148:
- In 1589 the Court went so far as to effect a reconciliation between Michel le Petevin and his wife after she actioned him for ill treatment and adultery with their chambermaid.
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Usage notes
- The verb sense action is rejected by some usage authorities.[2]
References
- OED 2nd edition 1989
- Notes:
- Marshall Cavendish Corporation Growing Up with Science p.1079
- Christopher Howse; Richard Preston (2007) She Literally Exploded: The Daily Telegraph Infuriating Phrasebook, London: Constable and Robinson, →ISBN, page 3.
Further reading
- action in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- action in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
French
Etymology
Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed in Middle French to resemble the Latin actiō.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ak.sjɔ̃/
audio (file) - Homophone: axion
Noun
action f (plural actions)
Further reading
- “action” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Middle English
Middle French
Etymology
Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed to resemble the Latin actiō.
Scots
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /akˈʃən/
Verb
action (third-person singular present actions, present participle actionin, past actiont, past participle actiont)
- to action
References
- Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.
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