Noun

Singular action

Plural actions

action (plural actions)

1. Something done so as to accomplish a purpose.
2. A way of motion or functioning.

   Knead bread with a rocking action.

3. A fast-paced activity.

   an action movie

4. A mechanism; a moving part or assembly.

   a rifle action

5. (music): The set of moving mechanical parts in a keyboard instrument which transfer the motion of the key to the sound-making device.
6. (slang) Sexual activity; intercourse.

   She gave him some action.

7. The distance separating the strings and the fretboard on the guitar.
8. (military) Combat.

   He saw some action in the Korean War.

9. (law) A charge or other process in a law court.

Derived terms

• social action
• action hero
• action item
• action man
• actions speak louder than words

• direct action
• lights, camera, action!
• take action

Related terms

• act
• agent

• agency

Action may refer to:

Action is the tendency towards making a concerted effort to accomplish a goal.

Sourced

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• Existence was given us for action, rather than indolent and aimless contemplation; our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel. They greatly mistake, who suppose that God cares for no other pursuit than devotion.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, p. 2.

• It is well to think well; it is divine to act well.
  • Horace Mann, p. 2.

• Man, being essentially active, must find in activity his joy, as well as his beauty and glory; and labor, like every thing else that is good, is its own reward.
  • Bishop Whipple, p. 3.

• Tempests may shake our dwellings and dissipate our commerce, but they scourge before them the lazy elements, which otherwise would stagnate into pestilence. Be thy best thoughts to work divine addressed; Do something, — do it soon — with all thy might; An angel's wing would droop if long at rest, And God Himself inactive were no longer blessed.
  • Carlos Wilcox, p. 3.

• When I read the life of such a man as Paul, how I blush to think how sickly and dwarfed Christianity is at the present time, and how many hundreds there are who never think of working for the Son of God and honoring Christ.
  • Dwight L. Moody, p. 3.

• I have lived to know that the secret of happiness is never to allow your energies to stagnate.
  • Adam Clarke, p. 3.

• I have never heard any thing about the resolutions of the disciples, but a great deal about the Acts of the Apostles.
  • Horace Mann, p. 3.

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Sun Jul 12 01:14:47 2009