Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'



Act   /ækt/   Listen
Act

noun
1.
A legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body.  Synonym: enactment.
2.
Something that people do or cause to happen.  Synonyms: deed, human action, human activity.
3.
A subdivision of a play or opera or ballet.
4.
A short theatrical performance that is part of a longer program.  Synonyms: bit, number, routine, turn.  "She had a catchy little routine" , "It was one of the best numbers he ever did"
5.
A manifestation of insincerity.



Related searches:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Act" Quotes from Famous Books



... of alternate pages, like subsidiary chapter headings. In longer selections they have been retained and moved to the beginning of the most appropriate paragraph; some are also grouped at the beginning of a selection to act as a detailed ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... the foggy doctrine of the superiority of gold in all cases act on progress as the old medieval superstitions acted on astronomy, physiology, zoology. Truth sought after without misgiving, and the humblest as well as the highest evidence taken in every case, ...
— Tin Foil and Its Combinations for Filling Teeth • Henry L. Ambler

... detected in counterfeiting, sentenced, and executed. Your grandfather was an illegitimate son of the counterfeiter Valois. That is the sum total of your relation to the royal family of France. It is possible that upon this very chair on which you now sit, accused of this act of deception, your natural great-grandfather once sat, accused like you of an act of deception, in order, after conviction of his crime, to be punished according to the laws ...
— Marie Antoinette And Her Son • Louise Muhlbach

... Barnes. You've shown antagonism to me, and you're likely to carry it into your delirium when it comes. I'll not shoot you until you menace me; then, unless I am too far gone myself, I'll shoot you dead, not only in self-defense, but as an act of mercy.' ...
— The Grain Ship • Morgan Robertson

... are justifiable; nay advisable, even to the point of taking life.... Human life is, indeed, sacred and inviolate. But the killing of a tyrant, of an enemy of the People, is in no way to be considered as the taking of a life.... To remove a tyrant is an act of liberation, the giving of life and opportunity to ...
— Introduction to Non-Violence • Theodore Paullin

... I can put upon my small axe, and hope in the next session of Parliament to stop their entrance into Canada. For the first time within the memory of man, the professors of English literature seem disposed to act together on this question. It is a good thing to aggravate a scoundrel, if one can do nothing else, and I think we can make them smart a little in this ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 3 (of 3), 1836-1870 • Charles Dickens

... a feeble guffaw. Nora's heart beat as she noticed how feeble it was. She left the room, because she could not stay there another moment. The time had come to act. She had hesitated long, but she would hesitate no longer. She ran downstairs. The first person she ...
— Light O' The Morning • L. T. Meade

... as he has been poetically termed by people who have but known him from afar, was in the act of mounting Will's horse, while near by stood his own, a miserable, ...
— Last of the Great Scouts - The Life Story of William F. Cody ["Buffalo Bill"] • Helen Cody Wetmore

... with, it carries us back to the "pressure of light'' mentioned in the preceding chapter. The manner in which this pressure is believed generally to act was there sufficiently explained, and it only remains to see how it is theoretically extended to the particles of matter supposed to constitute the Zodiacal Light. We know that corpuscles, or "fragments of atoms'' negatively electrified, ...
— Curiosities of the Sky • Garrett Serviss

... had chosen the career which would best enable him to achieve it, even at the risk of his life, and he now resolved to become an explorer. With him to think was to act. He had asked the minister to commission him to go to Timbuctoo by the route Laing afterwards took when he heard of the expedition under Clapperton and Oudney; and he now begged to be ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part III. The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century • Jules Verne

... the brave act of a brave man. The carpenter was clapt into irons himself, and given no less of the cat-o'-nine-tails than was good for him, and properly discharged at Tobago with such as had supported him. But ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... of seventeen who, for the sake of an ugly, deformed, and degraded workman, left her home, dressed as a man, and in a small broken canoe made a trip of eighty miles to join her lover. In olden times death would have been the penalty for such an act; but she, being a "New Woman" in her tribe, exclaimed, "If I fell in love with a wild beast, no one should prevent me marrying it." In this Eastern clime, Brooke declares, "love is like the sun's rays in warmth." ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck

... liberty of any part of the human species. The sum of the argument is this:—No man is by nature the property of another: The defendant is, therefore, by nature free: The rights of nature must be some way forfeited before they can be justly taken away: That the defendant has by any act forfeited the rights of nature we require to be proved; and if no proof of such forfeiture can be given, we doubt not but the justice of the court will declare ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... goal to which they fare with certain workmen, for whom an Emir buildeth a narrow house and lodgeth them therein, commanding each of them to do a certain task and assigning to him a set term and appointing one to act as steward over them. Whoso doeth the work appointed unto him, the steward bringeth him forth of that straitness; but whoso doeth it not within the stablished term is punished. After awhile, behold, they find honey exuding from the chinks of the house,[FN102] ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton

... grace, the least misgiving, as to His willingness to give me all I need; on the contrary, I have been assured that, when I actually required the money for the fittings and the furniture, it would come. And now this day the Lord has again proved, to me, how willing Ha is to act according to my faith; for there was given to me this morning 887l. under the kind condition that I should take of it 20l. for my own personal expenses, and the rest for the Building Fund or the present need of the various objects of the Institution, as it appeared ...
— A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself, Fourth Part • George Mueller

... to rob me, than afterwards swear against him at the Old-Bailey, to take away his life, after he has robbed me. I am surer I am right in the one case than in the other. I may be mistaken as to the man, when I swear: I cannot be mistaken, if I shoot him in the act. Besides, we feel less reluctance to take away a man's life, when we are heated by the injury, than to do it at a distance of time by an oath, after we have cooled.' BOSWELL. 'So, Sir, you would rather act from the motive of ...
— Life of Johnson - Abridged and Edited, with an Introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood • James Boswell

... his declining years with the glowing beams of her beauty and her youth, like an angel who has taken human form. If something of this, or all of this, was what the girl thought, and if she failed to perceive the full significance of her act, then its morality is ...
— Pepita Ximenez • Juan Valera

... that the rivers will flow, and the snow fall, and the fruits ripen, and act upon others as upon us now—yet not act upon us! To think of all these wonders of city and country, and others taking great interest in them—and we taking—no interest ...
— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman

... the Minster during a specified portion of the year, when he lived at his residence at York. The residences of the prebendaries were mostly round the Minster Close. While his own parish was served vicariously while he was at York, each canon had a minor-canon or vicar-choral to act as his deputy at York when he was absent. These vicars-choral formed a corporate body and lived collegiately in the Bedern. The numerous chantries in the Minster were served by priests who also lived collegiately but at St. ...
— Life in a Medival City - Illustrated by York in the XVth Century • Edwin Benson

... between born criminals and insane criminals lies in the motive for the act, which in the case of the latter is not only entirely disproportionate to it, but nearly always absurd and depends far ...
— Criminal Man - According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso • Gina Lombroso-Ferrero

... besieged by the clamors of his starving subjects, who cried to him for protection through their cages—meeting the curses of some of his subjects, and the prayers of others—with famine at his heels, and reproach following him,—then it was that this Prince is represented as exercising this act of prodigal bounty to the very man whom he here reproaches—to the very man whose policy had extinguished his power, and whose creatures had desolated his country. To talk of a free-will gift! it is audacious and ridiculous to ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Vol 2 • Thomas Moore

... of bitterness but of pride. That little band, whose courage was unquenchable and untamable, were not picked men and women, but just an ordinary crowd made up of soldiers and civilians and their wives and children, yet not one act of selfishness or cowardice remains to stain their record. When the last extremity came, sloth and indifference and selfishness dropped off like sloughs and only devotion and bravery shone out. It is grand to belong to a race which holds these ...
— Round the Wonderful World • G. E. Mitton

... Stevenson. I chanced to come upon the stage several miles farther down the road. A wheel had given away, and there was every indication that the delay would prove serious, so when the driver mentioned the fact that he had mail and merchandise for you, I volunteered to act as his substitute and deliver them safely into your hands. I hope therefore that the service will in some slight measure atone for my presumption in ...
— Starr, of the Desert • B. M Bower

... was directed chiefly to the king and queen. The latter appeared in the theatre for the first time since a severe illness, the enthusiasm was great, and there was no end to the cries of "Long live the king and queen!" which were repeated between every act. ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... party, only Ernest Travers and his wife had met the sailor before, on the occasion of his wedding; while as to the staff at Chadlands, nothing transpired to indicate that any had ever had occasion to feel affronted by an act of his. They were, moreover, loyal to a man and woman. They furnished no peculiarities, and gave no ground for the least suspicion. The case, in Frith's opinion, was unique, because, despite the number of persons it was necessary to study and consider, ...
— The Grey Room • Eden Phillpotts

... man of the greatest moral grandeur could act like that. It's because of such things that our people, boys, officers and all, will ...
— The Shades of the Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler

... sheet-copper, 6 x 2 in. The narrow strip, or leader, A, is 5 x 1/2 in. To fasten it to C, punch two small holes in C and A, put short lengths of stout copper wire through the holes, and hammer them down so that they will act as rivets, R. C can be hung centrally in the tumbler by bending A as shown. Y and X are spring binding-posts (App. 42). The battery wires can be fastened directly to Z and A, as ...
— How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus • Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew) St. John

... allowance. The director, discovering this, removed the young man into another ward—an action possibly rather spiteful, possibly also only a slight excess, or no excess at all, of red-tapeism in discipline. Claude not merely asks reasons for this,—which, of course, even if respectfully done, was an act of clear insubordination on any but anarchist principles,—but repeats the enquiry. The director more than once puts the question by, but inflicts no penalty. Whereupon Claude makes a harangue to the shop (which appears, in some astounding fashion, ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... miscarriage and death may have entered into the plans of Darnley. Knox does not tell the story himself; his "History" ends in June 1564. But "in plain terms" he "lets the world understand what we mean," namely, that Riccio "was justly punished," and that "the act" (of the murderers) was "most just and most worthy of all praise." {251a} This Knox wrote just after the event, while the murderers were still in exile in England, where Ruthven died—seeing a vision of angels! Knox makes no drawback to the entirely and absolutely laudable character ...
— John Knox and the Reformation • Andrew Lang

... but remember, O my son, that no less a frenzy was every act of your life, and every thought, which led you on the path to that ultimate sin. Frenzy it is to live only for the flesh; frenzy, to imagine that any good can come of aught you purpose without beseeching the ...
— Veranilda • George Gissing

... old-time vessels, but all the bottles had been taken from it except an empty one—which looked as though the cabin had been opened at the last moment to fetch out supplies for the boats, and then deliberately locked fast again with the poor woman inside: an act so barbarous that it did not seem possible unless a crew of out and out devils had been in charge of the ancient craft. However, the matter which just then most concerned me was the liquor that I was in search of, that I might a little stay my stomach ...
— In the Sargasso Sea - A Novel • Thomas A. Janvier

... Wine, wax-lights, comestibles, rouge, crinoline-petticoats, diamonds, wigs, Louis-Quatorze gimcracks, and old china, park hacks, and splendid high-stepping carriage horses—all the delights of life, I say,—would go to the deuce, if people did but act upon their silly principles and avoid those whom they dislike and abuse. Whereas, by a little charity and mutual forbearance, things are made to go on pleasantly enough: we may abuse a man as much as we like, and call him the greatest rascal unhanged—but do we ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... promises, and partly by corruption, to bring over the earls of Roxburgh and Marchmont, with the whole squadron who had hitherto been unpropitious to the court. They disarmed the resentment of the clergy, by promoting an act to be inserted in the union, declaring the presbyterian discipline to be the only government in the church of Scotland, unalterable in all succeeding times, and a fundamental article of the treaty. They soothed the African company with the prospect ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... and as to everything else of that kind, all rests with you. You will continue in all such matters to act for both of us, as you have done hitherto, and to lighten my mind of a load it is much ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... Senator grew more and more bewildered. It was clear that this girl was either speaking the truth, or else that she was a most wonderful actress. But, as every man who has reached the Senator's age is ruefully aware, very young women can act on occasion in ordinary every day life, as no professional actress of genius ever did or ever will do ...
— The End of Her Honeymoon • Marie Belloc Lowndes

... stones and herbs are used in evocations; 'sacred bonds' are tied (as in the Eskimo hypnotism and in Australia); closed doors are opened, the heavenly bodies are observed. Some suppose that there is a race of false and counterfeiting spirits, which, indeed, Iamblichus admits. These act the parts of gods, demons, and souls of the dead. Again, the conjurer plays on our expectant attention. Omitting some remarks no longer appropriate, Porphyry asks what use there is in chanting barbarous and meaningless words. ...
— Cock Lane and Common-Sense • Andrew Lang

... You hev, hev ye? Well, look yar, ole man. Suppose I REFUSE. Suppose I'd rather go than act as a spy on that young gal your darter! Suppose that—hic—allowin' she's my friend, I'd rather starve in the gutters of the Mission than stand between her and the man she fancies. Hey? Suppose I would—damn me! Suppose I'd see you and your derned old rancho ...
— Two Men of Sandy Bar - A Drama • Bret Harte

... read too well. Their will is not perfectly trained, and they would rather think out a domestic problem than act it out. The education of books alone is so one-sided that we cannot consider it practical; it must be supplemented ...
— Girls and Women • Harriet E. Paine (AKA E. Chester}

... now. Her face startlingly white against the mass of black hair. The only sign of her troubled day is a frequent half-sob and the sadness of her mouth, which is constantly reading the riot act to her laughing ...
— The Lady and Sada San - A Sequel to The Lady of the Decoration • Frances Little

... vineyard, a well-watered kitchen garden seems to have been the part of the farm which was supposed to yield the most valuable produce. But Democritus, who wrote upon husbandry about two thousand years ago, and who was regarded by the ancients as one of the fathers of the art, thought they did not act wisely who inclosed a kitchen garden. The profit, he said, would not compensate the expense of a stone-wall: and bricks (he meant, I suppose, bricks baked in the sun) mouldered with the rain and the winter-storm, and required continual repairs. Columella, who reports this judgment ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... putting an end to a crying public scandal. Miss Wilberforce spent her days in sleeping, and her nights in shocking the population of Nepenthe. The lady should be temporarily secluded in her own interests; she was not fit to be left alone; it was an act of charity to do what one could towards improving her health and prolonging her life. They were out for a philanthropic object—to assist in helping a fellow creature. Miss Wilberforce must be protected against herself. Mr. van Koppen's half-million ...
— South Wind • Norman Douglas

... street. All that was peculiar or disagreeable in a person he would imitate directly, and people said, "That boy will be very clever; he has a remarkable genius." But it was the piece of glass in his eye, and the coldness in his heart, that made him act like this. He would even tease little Gerda, who loved him with all her heart. His games, too, were quite different; they were not so childish. One winter's day, when it snowed, he brought out a burning-glass, then ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... go upstairs immediately. He took a solitary walk in the woods, thinking over everything that Musard had told him. Then he returned to the house and mounted the staircase to the left wing. His first act was to make a thorough examination of the unused back staircase at the end of the corridor. Then he entered the bedroom Mrs. Heredith ...
— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees

... PARLIAMENT. A military term for small beer, five pints of which, by an act of parliament, a landlord was formerly obliged to give to each ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.

... justice to the jury or the public, did he not give expression to the general feeling of admiration which her noble conduct had aroused. In the hurry and excitement of a fire there were few who had the presence of mind to act as she had done, or who would run the risks she had for the sake of saving others. He deeply regretted that so valuable a life, offered so ...
— Noble Deeds of the World's Heroines • Henry Charles Moore

... several very remarkable qualities, some at least of which he believed might be rendered of the utmost value in medical practice. Anxious to make his researches thoroughly exhaustive he had, upon the day of the catastrophe, been distilling the essence of the plant; and, his task completed, he was in the act of bottling the extract for future examination when its peculiarly pleasing fragrance caused him to take several deep inhalations from the bottle. He had hardly done so when he felt his strength rapidly leaving him, and he had only time to deposit the phial, open, ...
— The Missing Merchantman • Harry Collingwood

... one who was sitting at the table with a chart spread in front of him, "I want you to hold yourself in readiness to accompany Captain Forsyth, this evening, on a patrol towards Kafr Dowar. You will act as interpreter. The commanding officer has selected you, as the work to be done will entail considerable risk, and we require a reliable man. Further instructions will be given you by Captain Forsyth. The patrol starts at sundown. You can go now and ...
— Under the Rebel's Reign • Charles Neufeld

... FORWARD): Gentlemen Swine, and gentle Lady-Pigs, The tender heart of every Boar acquits Their QUEEN, of any act incongruous With native Piggishness, and she, reposing 160 With confidence upon the grunting nation, Has thrown herself, her cause, her life, her all, Her innocence, into their Hoggish arms; Nor has the expectation ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... confronted him. It is immaterial for us to inquire where the Goths were at that time, or what they were doing. It is sufficient for us to know that the Goths at that time were pagans, mere heathen. Under those circumstances what did Ulphilas do? He went to the Goths. That one act reveals his character. If in the remaining moments of this lecture I can enforce the lesson for us of that one act, I shall feel that my coming here has not ...
— Humanly Speaking • Samuel McChord Crothers

... this case? It is true that no one actually saw the prisoner kill the decedent, and that he has so successfully hidden the body that it has not been found, but the powerful chain of circumstances, clear and close-linked, proving motive, the criminal agency, and the criminal act, is overwhelming. ...
— Stories by Modern American Authors • Julian Hawthorne

... work, than yoga; than knowledge. Day and night think of God in the midst of all your activities. The daily necessary thoughts can all be thought through God. Eat to Him, drink to Him, sleep to Him, see Him in all. Let us open ourselves to the one Divine Actor, and let Him act and do nothing ourselves. Complete self-surrender is the only way. Put out self, ...
— Cosmic Consciousness • Ali Nomad

... connectedly. The idea of remaining where he was seemed intolerable. To be taken care of by Frau von Sigmundskron, to be under the same roof with Hilda, would be to give up the contest for which he had sacrificed so much. He did not understand that his mind would act very differently when he had recovered, and that much which seemed disagreeable at present, might ...
— Greifenstein • F. Marion Crawford

... thing. You see I am not a nobleman or a landowner. What sort of management is mine?... Besides, I don't know how to do things differently. I try to act according to justice and the law, and leave the rest in God's hands! Young gentlemen don't like the old method; I think they are right.... It's the time to take in ideas. Only this is the pity of it; the young are too theoretical. They treat the peasant like a doll; they ...
— A Sportsman's Sketches - Works of Ivan Turgenev, Vol. I • Ivan Turgenev

... places all over the country. Now, from their conquerors, the Britons learnt many useful arts, to read and to write, to build houses and to make roads; but at the same time, they unlearnt some of their own virtues and, among others, how to think and act for themselves. For the Romans never allowed a Briton any real part in the government of his own country, and if he wished to become a soldier, he was sent away from Britain to serve with a legion stationed in some far-distant part of the empire. Thus it came about that ...
— Stories from Le Morte D'Arthur and the Mabinogion • Beatrice Clay

... in the tissues, and their function seems to be to soften such substances preliminary to their being removed by the phagocytes. Numerous polymorpho-nuclear leucocytes, which have wandered from the vessels, are also present in the spaces. These act as phagocytes, their function being to remove the red corpuscles and fibrin of the original clot, and this performed, they either pass back into the circulation in virtue of their amoeboid movement, or are themselves eaten up by the growing ...
— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles

... say nothing, we go to war. If they speak, we will allow ourselves to be persuaded to share the booty which we cannot restore to its owners. In that way, we are in a manner forced into this coalition, and the opprobrium of the act falls upon those who devised it, while Maria Theresa's scruples ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... and although our mind shrinks from allowing such a thought of your Serenity, although by ourselves and by our auditory of the Rota an inhibition has been already issued against you; although the act of which you are suspected be in itself forbidden by all laws human and divine, yet the reports which are brought to us do so move us, that once more we do inhibit you from dissolving your marriage with the aforesaid Catherine, or from continuing ...
— The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) • James Anthony Froude

... time since the beginning of the interview, she allowed the impulse of the moment to lead her astray. In her eagerness to complete the act of atonement, she failed to appreciate the severity of the struggle that was passing in Catherine's mind. She alluded again to Herbert Linley, and she ...
— The Evil Genius • Wilkie Collins

... we know, the Keeper of the King's Conscience and the head of the Court of Equity, was an Ecclesiastic in the formidable person of Cardinal Woolsey. About the reign of King John, laymen became lawyers, and in Henry III's time the Pope forbade priests to fit themselves in civil law or to act as advisers in respect to it. We may properly say that the profession of the Bar, as a recognized English institution, had its beginnings in the struggle for individual rights by which the English race forced the great charter from King John. We find that in the history ...
— Ethics in Service • William Howard Taft

... upon. You see nitrogen may be in soil in quantities sufficient for nourishment. But unless it is in a compound available for use, it is of no value to the plant. Then there are the bad bacteria which act upon nitrogen in such a way as to form compounds which escape from the soil as a gas. That is ...
— The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. • Ellen Eddy Shaw

... will on this seventh day of May 179-, here in my house in Haslau, in Dog Street, without a great ado of words, although I have been both a German notary and a Dutch domine. Notwithstanding, I believe that I am still sufficiently familiar with the notary's art to be able to act as a regular testator ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... for me, Johnny, when I ask you to come back and do what dad is willing to have you do, you'd do it. I don't see how you can be stubborn enough to refuse such a perfectly wonderful offer. You wouldn't, if you cared a snap about me. You act just ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower

... attribute primarily the failure of his plan; the antipathy of the republican opposition in the senate to any decree which really or nominally enlarged the authority of the regents; lastly and mainly, the incapacity of Pompeius himself, who even after having been compelled to act could not prevail on himself to acknowledge his own action, but chose always to bring forward his real design as it were in incognito by means of his friends, while he himself in his well-known modesty declared his willingness to be content with even less. No wonder that ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... of this article has always believed it to be a misfortune to his race and to the country, if conditions be such as to make it necessary for any race or group, of which our citizenship is composed, to act in a solid body with any one political party. The writer timely called attention to this in a speech which he delivered on the floor of the House of Representatives over thirty years ago. He then ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various

... to an end, it's no wonder the cows act so," said Dotty, to herself, but she dared not say ...
— Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's • Sophie May

... only the distant spots of interest, but every tree, delighting to act as guide to all its pleasant places. So each new guest was taken to see High Beeches and the great wind-swept row of Scots firs by Clearwell Court. The aged oak-tree, which at a distance resembled a barn—for ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Vol. 2 • Stephen Gwynn

... and weak, there would seem to be a deficiency of oxygene in their blood, and in consequence a deficiency of phosphoric acid; which is probably produced by oxygene in the act of respiration. ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... what I purpose be put into act, Do not o'erprize it: since you have trusted me With your soul's nearest, nay, her dearest secret, Rest confident, 'tis in a cabinet lock'd, Treachery shall never open. I have found you More zealous in your love and service to me Than I have been in ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various

... by Alexander of Alexandria, they betook themselves to Palestine, and were re-admitted into the Church by the bishops of that country. On this, Alexander observes as follows:—"A very heavy imputation, doubtless, lies upon such of my brethren as have ventured on this act, in that it is a violation of the ...
— Historical Sketches, Volume I (of 3) • John Henry Newman

... greatness in a woman's mind? Ill lodged, and weak to act what it designed? Pleasure's your portion, and your slothful ease: When man's at leisure, study how to please, Soften his angry hours with servile care, And, when he ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume 5 (of 18) - Amboyna; The state of Innocence; Aureng-Zebe; All for Love • John Dryden

... classes, and was regarded universally as the highest authority in matters of faith and morals,—it seems strange that so violent an opposition should have been made to its translation into vernacular tongues, and to its circulation among the people. Wyclif's translation was regarded as an act of sacrilege, worthy of condemnation and punishment. So furious was the outcry against him, as an audacious violator who dared to touch the sacred ark with unconsecrated hands, that even a bill was brought into ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume V • John Lord

... here," goes on Mr. Judson, exhibitin' a paper, "a list of names and addresses. They are the persons, Mr. Steele, on whose behalf you are requested, with the advice and help of Professor McCabe, to perform some kind and generous act. My part will be merely to handle the funds." And he smiles confidin' ...
— Shorty McCabe on the Job • Sewell Ford

... there's nothing in it. But think with your self how often you have offended God with Dicing, Drinking, Brawling, Quarrelling. At least, make an Atonement for your Sins by this Act of Charity, and don't thrust these Men out of Doors, whom you would wish to be with you when you are upon your Death-Bed. You oftentimes harbour Rattles and Buffoons, and will you thrust ...
— Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. • Erasmus

... broke in Kenneth Gurlone, shaking his yellow head. "We must act at once. The peons are almost mad with fear. Even Espinosa cannot quiet them. And every moment is precious, for the monsters may ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 • Various

... "Aaron even made our smiths, those human sharks bound for Qureysh, act friendly. For all his strange ...
— Blind Man's Lantern • Allen Kim Lang

... those investigations was, a large accession to our previous knowledge of the sea to the eastward of Australia, now become important from our settlements; and a survey of five hundred miles of the great chain of coral reefs which act as ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. • Various

... announced Andy, when they came in sight of the ranch house. "Don't let on to anybody about that doctored cake. If Hop Lung or anybody else mentions it, just act as if nothing unusual had happened. Say the lunch was as good as any ...
— The Rover Boys at Big Horn Ranch - The Cowboys' Double Round-Up • Edward Stratemeyer

... loss of her trust in her elders and her respect for them. Her heart had had its past, though she was still hardly more than a child—a sad past, though its pain was being rapidly effaced. She now thought about it only at intervals. Time and circumstances were operating on her as they act upon us generally; only in her case more quickly than usual, which produced in her character and feelings phenomena that might have seemed curious to an observer. She was something of a woman, something of a child, something of ...
— Jacqueline, Complete • (Mme. Blanc) Th. Bentzon

... composed of the seven electors, the lesser princes (including the higher ecclesiastical dignitaries, such as bishops and abbots), and representatives of the free cities, grouped in three separate houses. The emperor was not supposed to perform any imperial act without the authorization of the Diet, and petty jealousies between its members or houses often prevented action in the Diet. The individual states, moreover, reserved to themselves the management of most affairs which in western Europe had been surrendered to the central national government. The ...
— A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. • Carlton J. H. Hayes

... with an unlucky man. I never act with them. Their advice sounds very well, but they cannot get on themselves; and if they cannot do good to themselves, how can they do ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson

... Lewis Whetzel's remarkable exploits. Returning home from a hunt, north of the Ohio, he was walking along in that reckless manner, which is a consequence of fatigue, when his quick eye suddenly caught sight of an Indian in the act of raising his gun to fire. Both sprung like lightning to the woodman's forts, large trees, and there they stood for an hour, each afraid of the other. This quiet mode of warfare did not suit the restless Whetzel, and he set his invention to work to terminate ...
— Heroes and Hunters of the West • Anonymous

... Roger, "have you forgot that 'tis I owe thanks to you, that you seek to magnify my simple act into so great deserving? They that of their kindness cheer my little suffering Christie's lonely life, deserve all the good that I can render them. My little maid prayed me to say unto you both that she sent you her right loving commendations, and ...
— All's Well - Alice's Victory • Emily Sarah Holt

... promoted Statira's affair with him, and therefore bound to guard her to the utmost from suffering by it, she seemed always to be on the alert to seize any advantage against him. Sometimes Statira accused her of trying to act so hatefully to him that he would never come any more; she wildly blamed her; but the faithful creature was none the less constant and vigilant on that account. She took patiently the unjust reproaches which Statira heaped upon ...
— The Minister's Charge • William D. Howells

... day (3 March) the City was informed that an Act of Parliament was already in preparation for settling 2,500,000 acres of land according to the votes of both Houses, unto which his majesty had given his royal assent.(515) The companies were subsequently (19th March) invited to provide ordnance ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume II • Reginald R. Sharpe

... signed. Christiern, learning for the first time of this document, demanded that it be produced. When this was done, and the king had examined it to his heart's content, he gave it to his clerk to copy, and called on each of the signers in turn to answer for his act. Christiern with his Cabinet then withdrew, leaving the patriot leaders in the great hall guarded by a body of Danish soldiers. At dusk two Danish officers entered with lanterns, "like Judas Iscariot" says a contemporary, and the doomed magnates were ...
— The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa • Paul Barron Watson

... and pleasure is in one of these two categories. This last assertion Aristotle denies. Pleasure is not a motion; for the attribute of velocity, greater or less, which is essential to all motion, does not attach to pleasure. A man may be quick in becoming pleased, or in becoming angry; but in the act of being pleased or angry, he can neither be quick nor slow. Nor is it true that pleasure is a generation. In all generation, there is something assignable out of which generation takes place (not any one thing out of any other), and into which it reverts by destruction. ...
— Moral Science; A Compendium of Ethics • Alexander Bain

... will find me more reasonable, Doctor," answered Albert; "and at the same time, that you will recollect I am not now sub ferula, but am placed in circumstances where I am not at liberty to act upon the ipse dixit of any man, unless my own judgment be convinced. I shall deserve richly to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, should any misfortune happen by my misgovernment ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott

... metal. By means of this crane it was drawn out of the furnace and swung round until its glowing head or end came close to the tongue before mentioned. Then some of the stalwart men grasped several iron handles, which were affixed to the cool end of the bar, and prepared themselves to act. A signal was given to a man who had not hitherto been noticed, he was so small in comparison with the machine on which he stood—perhaps it would be better to say to which he stuck, because he was perched on a little platform about seven or eight feet from ...
— The Iron Horse • R.M. Ballantyne

... Gertie was lured from her cage to a large adjoining compartment for certain experimental observations. After she had been returned to her own cage the remnant was noticed on the floor of the large cage. I picked it up. Gertie evidently noticed my act; for although at a distance of at least ten feet from me, she made a sharp outcry and sprang to the side of the cage nearest me. I held the piece of skin (it looked more like a bit of rat skin than the remains of a monkey) ...
— The Mental Life of Monkeys and Apes - A Study of Ideational Behavior • Robert M. Yerkes

... well as that salsolaceous class of plants, among which the schlerolina and rhagodia are so remarkable. The natives left us at sunset, but returned early in the morning with an extremely facetious and good-humoured old man, who volunteered to act as our guide without the least hesitation. There was a cheerfulness in his manner, that gained our confidence at once, and rendered him a general favourite. He went in front with the dogs, and led us a little away from the river to kill kangaroos, as he said. At about ...
— Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia, Complete • Charles Sturt

... thoughts, thus fettered in my rhymes, Indeed the product of my heart and brain? How strange that on my ear the rhythmic strain Falls like faint memories of far-off times! When did I feel the sorrow, act the part, Which I have striv'n to shadow forth in song? In what dead century swept that mingled throng Of mighty pains and pleasures through my heart? Not in the yesterdays of that still life Which I have passed so free and far from strife, ...
— Poems of Henry Timrod • Henry Timrod

... freely as the men. After Nancy had quaffed a couple of horns, the melancholy which the new-comer had a little while before noticed so plainly in her face disappeared; and she began to bestow marked attentions upon the handsome and well-bred stranger. Not an act of hers escaped the jealous eye of Murfrey; and as the miserable girl was in the act of passing something to Roland, the robber gave her a violent blow ...
— The Four Canadian Highwaymen • Joseph Edmund Collins

... Christian faith, it is well to call attention to it as a point of contact. It breathes the spirit of karma, which, in its retributive power, has been compared by some to the doctrine of heredity, and by others, to that of fate. Karma demands the full future fruition of every act done in the body; and many re-births, with intervals of keener suffering and bliss in numerous hells and heavens, are the countless steps in the doleful fugue of emancipation—a process which is enough to appall any but the patient, ...
— India's Problem Krishna or Christ • John P. Jones

... the rest, Lizzie," Tish said wearily. "I suppose I'll have to get him something to do, but I don't know what, unless I employ him to follow me around and arrest me when I act like a dratted fool." ...
— More Tish • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... linoleum, its partitioned walls, its smooth mahogany counters, its unobtrusive mirrors, its rows of youths and virgins in black, and its pervading atmosphere of quietude and discretion, was like entering a temple before the act of oblation has commenced. You were conscious of some supreme administrative influence everywhere imposing itself. That influence was Ezra Brunt. And yet the man differed utterly from the thing he had created. His was one of those dark and passionate souls which smoulder in this harsh Midland district ...
— Tales of the Five Towns • Arnold Bennett

... various encounters. Alf was more or less affected by the literature and ready to do his share toward making each of them a proper warrior fit for any fray. They considered the situation with much earnestness, and concluded that the only way to joust was to joust, and that Valentine should act as marshal of the occasion, for a marshal at a tourney, they discovered, was a prime necessity. As for coursers, barbs, destriers, or whatever name their noble steeds might bear, they had no choice. There were but a couple of clumsy farm ...
— A Man and a Woman • Stanley Waterloo

... our expedition to sketch the glories of the Andes, but he fell a victim to the scourge of the lowlands one week after his arrival in Quito. We buried him at noon-day[33] in the new cemetery, "wherein was never man laid," and by the act consecrated the ground. Peace to his ashes; honor to his memory. That 8th of September, 1867, was a new day in the annals of Quito. On that day the imperial city beheld, for the first time in three centuries, the decent burial ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

... competent actors and actresses standing doing nothing when some movement is urgently called for, is to deny to Wagner all the advantages of the new acting which modern stage singers have learnt from his music. The first act of "The Valkyrie," for example, will be absurd so long as Sieglinde, Hunding, and Siegmund are made to stand in solemn silence, as beginners who cannot hear the prompter's voice, until Sieglinde has mixed Hunding's draught. And some of the ...
— Old Scores and New Readings • John F. Runciman

... province than like a peaceful citizen exercising ordinary official functions in a community governed by law. This was a very sagacious course, so far as concerned the attainment of the great objects of future ambition. Pompey knew very well that occasions would probably arise in which he could act far more effectually for the promotion of his own greatness and fame than by mingling in the ordinary municipal contests of ...
— History of Julius Caesar • Jacob Abbott

... naughtiness that a quiet spinster could well have lit upon. It really sometimes seemed to Honora as if there were scarcely a fault in the range of possibilities that she had not committed; and indeed a bit of good advice generally seemed to act by contraries, and served to suggest mischief. Softness and warmth of feeling seemed to have been lost with her father; she did not show any particular affection towards her brother or Honora. Perhaps she liked Miss Wells, but that might be only opposition; nay, Honor would ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge

... act like that," he murmured, as he rode into the Morteyn gate, and, with a smart slap of his hand on Faust's withers, he sent that intelligent animal at a trot towards the stables, where a groom awaited him with ...
— Lorraine - A romance • Robert W. Chambers

... evening from the officers of the household, when they came to bring the princess her supper, how far they were on their journey, at last persuaded her mother, who put off the cruel act as long as she could, that it would never do to wait any longer. They were nearly at the capital, and the young prince might, in his impatience, come to meet them, and the opportunity be lost. So next day, at noon, when the sun was at the hottest, the lady-in-waiting took out a knife, which ...
— The Fairy Book - The Best Popular Stories Selected and Rendered Anew • Dinah Maria Mulock (AKA Miss Mulock)

... performed with the assistance of a preceptor or priest. In leaving the domestic mode for the life of a forest recluse, the diksha is necessary. In following the Unccha vow, this rite is needed. Any religious act performed by one without having undergone the formal diksha, becomes ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... potatoes, butter, and baked sweet apples for breakfast and dinners; for suppers, old dry flour bread, which, eaten very leisurely without butter, sauce, or drink, sits the lightest and best of any thing I eat. But I cannot make this my principal diet, because the bowels will not act (without physic) unless they have the spur of wheat bran two thirds of the time. I have at times practiced going to bed without any third meal; and have found myself amply rewarded for this kind of fasting, and the consequent respite thereby afforded the stomach, in quiet sleep ...
— Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages • William Andrus Alcott

... little squalor, little degradation. There is no regular wife-beating class, and there are none of the stultified peasants of whom it takes so many to make a European noble. The people here are more conscious of things; they invent, they act, they answer for themselves; they are not (I speak of social matters) tied up by authority and precedent. We shall have all the Titians by and by, and we shall move over a few cathedrals. You had ...
— The Point of View • Henry James

... have inserted nothing in my diary for more than a fortnight. Events have been altogether too sad for me to have the spirit to put them on paper. And yet there comes a time when the act of recording one's trouble is recognized as a welcome method of dwelling ...
— A Changed Man and Other Tales • Thomas Hardy

... to consider this supposed missionary in the last act of his mission; and here it is that the malevolent spirit of a Bible-prophet, or of a predicting priest, appears in all that blackness of character that men ascribe to the being they call ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... that particular age of life, that every month, and every week, brings about new conditions of surface and texture. A child of Niobe? Very likely. There is suffering also here, a suffering different from theirs; struck by the Sun-God's arrow, he is in the act of sinking to earth. Over this tension broods a divine calm. Here is the antidote ...
— Alone • Norman Douglas

... accused the executive, before the tribunal of the people, on those specific points, from its decisions respecting which he was said to have threatened the appeal. As if the offence lay, not in perpetrating the act, but in avowing an intention to perpetrate it, this demonstration of his designs did not render his advocates the less vehement in his support, nor the less acrimonious in reproaching the administration, as well as ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 5 (of 5) • John Marshall

... other people mind theirs;' but just before Mr. Torpenhow went away he give me to understand, like, that you might be moving into a house of your own, so to speak—a sort of house with rooms upstairs and downstairs where you'd be better attended to, though I try to act just by all our tenants. ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling

... the assailing column to retreat and seek the friendly shelter of the Persian camp, while he essayed to maintain his advantage in a different way. His light archers were ordered to the front, and, being formed into divisions which were to act as reliefs, received orders to prevent the restoration of the ruined wall by directing an incessant storm of arrows into the gap made by the waters. But the firmness and activity of the garrison and inhabitants defeated this well-imagined ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7. (of 7): The Sassanian or New Persian Empire • George Rawlinson

... on the shores of a lake; a dispute arose as to their respective powers, which they agreed to settle by running in opposite directions round the lake, and whichever arrived first at the starting point was to evince his superiority by some signal act of power. The squirrel beat, ran up a tree, and loudly demanded light which, instantly beaming forth, discovered a bird dispelling the gloom with its wings; the bird was afterwards recognised to be a crow. The squirrel next broke a piece ...
— The Journey to the Polar Sea • John Franklin

... first act, therefore, was to send out a galley under Volusenus "to pry along the coast," and meanwhile to order the fleet which he had built against the Veneti to rendezvous at Boulogne. Besides these war-galleys ...
— Early Britain—Roman Britain • Edward Conybeare

... was created, and that he was created perfect. Since he was created, he is not self-existent, and never can be free from his dependence upon the Creator. He may vainly propose to become independent, and even be permitted for a time to act under that delusion; but that would only delay the inevitable judgment that awaits him. He was created perfect, or was a perfect fulfilment of the Creator's intention. Satan was a free moral agent; capable of choosing evil, but not obliged to do so. That he chose evil ...
— Satan • Lewis Sperry Chafer



Words linked to "Act" :   surprise, departure, sex act, make believe, effectuation, mime, stooge, woo, impersonate, disposal, rampage, implementation, carry, criticize, wear, queen it over, make, wind up, manoeuver, RICO Act, find, act superior, antagonise, digging up, leveling, satisfice, plow ahead, go about, dramatic art, wreak, optimize, conduct, feign, had best, do, race, deed, disturb, pull, mitzvah, permissive waste, get by, bank, ramp, condescend, assumption, go on, causing, snap, rescript, come forward, performance, exhumation, scene, offer, touching, concert dance, decree, commit, judgment, showstopper, misdemean, dispatch, pursue, get around to, misbehave, acquiring, repay, dally, official document, vulgarise, fall over backwards, disinterment, egression, egotrip, counteract, begin, propulsion, reward, reflexion, nonachievement, hold back, pay back, forestall, volunteer, serve, grapple, make as if, guard, comport, reflection, support, dramaturgy, backslap, deliver the goods, hinderance, forfeit, essay, parody, relax, hire, stoop, abidance, forfeiture, rage, leaning, interrupt, descend, retrieval, overplay, step up, bear, take over, dramatic play, bring, walk around, make bold, fiat, create, take part, act up, alternate, repeat, show-stopper, legitimation, order, public presentation, go off at half-cock, go off half-cocked, emote, respond, hindrance, seek, manage, sentimentalise, set about, maneuver, footle, make out, sentimentalize, hold off, stampede, legislative act, ham it up, ballet, reciprocate, hurry, loosen up, sauce, going, equalization, deal, drama, storm, do well, go, persist in, jest, stay, move, swell, exert, drive around, sentimentise, nullity, delivery, pantomime, theatre, legal document, approach, play it by ear, flirt, mitsvah, refrain, residence, rush, keep, sham, running away, come through, stopper, swash, be, hugger mugger, going away, counter, play, take turns, dramatic composition, follow, quack, ham, interact, break down, leaving, court, take care, recovery, dramatic work, use, force, work, perform, interference, proceed, come out, step forward, anticipate, start, piffle, finish up, lower oneself, judgement, production, statute, opera, motivation, end up, take, theater, joke, manifestation, emergence, nonaccomplishment, criticise, partner, come close, re-create, optimise, deport, wait, derivation, festinate, stop, romanticize, solicit, aggress, engage, puff up, underplay, toy, enactment, edict, sentimentize, freeze, fetch up, disposition, look sharp, proclamation, manoeuvre, stoppage, attempt, deign, put on airs, promulgation, causation, assume, egress, contend, rejection, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, lord it over, make for, step to the fore, assessment, frivol, lose it, dawdle, motivating, dramatics, communicating, antagonize, legal instrument, dare, try, romance, instrument, expression, law, presume, bend over backwards, perpetrate, bluster, misconduct, swagger, waste, wanton, wearing, foresee, fair-trade act, make sure, vulgarize, acquit, trifle, effect, cope, finish, communication, distribution, succeed, take time by the forelock, attack, come to the fore, actuation, land up, go along, jurisprudence, satisfise, sacrifice, make a point, obstetrical delivery, make do, participate, touch, prosecute, performing arts, sneak, menace, bring home the bacon, portray, event, continue, go ahead, evade, simulate, getting, hasten, discovery, equalisation, bungle, pretend, assay, oppose, residency, win, uncovering



Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org