action definition

English action definition

Etymology

From Middle English accion, from Old French aucion, acciun, from Latin āctiō (“act of doing or making”), from āctus + action suffix -iō, perfect passive participle of agere (“do, act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti; see also act, active.

Morphologically act +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæk.ʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækʃən
• Hyphenation: ac‧tion

Noun

action (countable and uncountable, plural actions)

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

   Coordinate terms: (what verbs can express) 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. (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]
7. (music, lutherie) The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on a guitar or other string instrument.
8. (slang, typically with a quantifier) Sexual intercourse.

   She gave him some action.

   I hope to get a bit of action with the hot guy from the club.

9. (military) Combat.

   He saw some action in the Korean War.

10. (law) A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).
11. (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.
13. (physics) The product of energy and time, especially the product of the Lagrangian and time.
14. (literature) 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.
15. (art, painting and sculpture) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
16. (bowling) spin put on the bowling ball.
17. (obsolete) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds.
    • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

      So saying he presented him with two actions of above two thousand livres each.

    • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC:

      the Euripus of funds and actions

18. (Christianity) A religious performance or solemn function, i.e. action sermon, a sacramental sermon in the Scots Presbyterian Church.
    • 2008, Duncan B. Forrester, Doug Gay, Worship and Liturgy in Context, scm Press, page 88:

      The Action Sermon is quite simply, then, the eucharistic sermon.

19. (sciences) a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings).

Synonyms

• (something done): deed; see also Thesaurus:action

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: екшън (ekšǎn)
• → German: Action
• → Irish: aicsean
• → Japanese: アクション (akushon)
• → Korean: 액션 (aeksyeon)
• → Russian: экшн (ekšn)

Translations

See also

• deed
• Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

References

• action on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Interjection

action!

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

   Antonym: cut

   The director yelled ‘Action!’ after the cameras started rolling.

Translations

Adjective

action (comparative more action, superlative most action)

1. (Manglish) arrogant

Verb

action (third-person singular simple present actions, present participle actioning, simple past and past participle actioned)

1. (transitive, management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
   • 2004, Ros Jay, Richard Templar, “Fast thinking: project”, in Fast Thinking Manager's Manual‎^[1], 2nd edition, Pearson Education, →ISBN, Fast Thinking Leader, page 276:

     ‘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.’

   • 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^[2], 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^[3], 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’.

2. (transitive, chiefly archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.
   • 1856, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England‎^[4], new revised 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^[5], 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^[6], 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^[7], 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.

Usage notes

• The verb sense action is rejected by some usage authorities.^[2]

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989
• Notes:

Further reading

• “action”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “action”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Catino, actino-, atonic, cation, cation-π

French action definition

Etymology

From Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed in Middle French to resemble the Latin actiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak.sjɔ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• Homophone: axion

Noun

action f (plural actions)

1. action, act, deed

   une bonne action ― a good deed

2. campaign

   une action promotionnelle

   a promotional campaign

3. stock, share

   une action de capitalisation

   a capitalisation share

4. (Switzerland) a special offer

Derived terms

Descendants

• Saint Dominican Creole French: z'action
• → Ottoman Turkish: آقسیون‎ (aksiyon)
  • Turkish: aksiyon
• → Romanian: acțiune

Further reading

• “action”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• cation, contai

Interlingua action definition

Noun

action (plural actiones)

1. action

Related terms

• active
• activitate

Middle English action definition

Noun

action

1. Alternative form of accion

Middle French action definition

Etymology

From Old French acciun, aucion, etymologically reconstructed to resemble the Latin actiō.

Noun

action f (plural actions)

1. action; act

Descendants

• French: action

Scots action definition

Etymology

From Middle English accion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /akˈʃən/

Noun

action (plural actions)

1. action

Verb

action (third-person singular simple present actions, present participle actionin, simple past actiont, past participle actiont)

1. to action

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

Swedish action definition

Noun

action

1. action (intense activity)

   Alla är så slöa här. Det behövs mer action.

   Everyone's so lethargic here. We need more action.

   En film med mycket action

   A movie with lots of action (scenes)

Usage notes

Uninflected.

Derived terms

• actionfilm (“action movie”)
• actionhjälte (“action hero”)

See also

• aktion
• auktion

References

• action in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• action in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)