man of action

man of action (plural men of action)

1. (set phrase) One who acts or reacts boldly, without hesitation, and often without forethought, especially in situations which are adventurous or dangerous.
   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, ch. 8:

     "I have heard that the Scots are good men of war," said Hordle John.

     "For axemen and for spearmen I have not seen their match," the archer answered. […]

     "And the French?" asked Alleyne, to whom the archer's light gossip had all the relish that the words of the man of action have for the recluse.

   • 1909, O. Henry, "Roads of Destiny":

     The third was a man of action, a combatant, a bold and impatient executive, breathing fire and steel.

   • 1942 June 1, "Heroes: Jimmy Did It," Time (retrieved 26 May 2018):

     The world found out last week who led the daring, destructive noonday air raid on Japan last month. . . . pugnacious Brigadier General James Harold Doolittle, 45, speed flyer, engineer, scholar and man of action.

   • 2017 December 1, Charles McGrath, "Patrick Leigh Fermor: A Life in Letters," (book review), New York Times (retrieved 26 May 2018):

     Patrick Leigh Fermor […] was a man of letters but also, like his hero Byron, a man of action—a war hero and a restless adventurer, who even swam the Hellespont when he was 69.