[W/K] :: Acting

  Act \Act\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Acted; p. pr. & vb. n.
     Acting.] [L. actus, p. p. of agere to drive, lead, do; but
     influenced by E. act, n.]
     1. To move to action; to actuate; to animate. [Obs.]
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              Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul.
                                                    --Pope.
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     2. To perform; to execute; to do. [Archaic]
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              That we act our temporal affairs with a desire no
              greater than our necessity.           --Jer. Taylor.
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              Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and
              facility of acting things expedient for us to do.
                                                    --Barrow.
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              Uplifted hands that at convenient times
              Could act extortion and the worst of crimes.
                                                    --Cowper.
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     3. To perform, as an actor; to represent dramatically on the
        stage.
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     4. To assume the office or character of; to play; to
        personate; as, to act the hero.
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     5. To feign or counterfeit; to simulate.
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              With acted fear the villain thus pursued. --Dryden.
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     To act a part, to sustain the part of one of the characters
        in a play; hence, to simulate; to dissemble.
  
     To act the part of, to take the character of; to fulfill
        the duties of.
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  Acting \Act"ing\, a.
     1. Operating in any way.
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     2. Doing duty for another; officiating; as, an acting
        superintendent.
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  acting
       adj : serving temporarily especially as a substitute; "the acting
             president" [syn: acting(a)]
       n : the performance of a part or role in a drama [syn: playing,
            playacting, performing]

  143 Moby Thesaurus words for "acting":
     act, action, active, activism, activity, ad interim, affectation,
     aping, appearance, at work, attitudinizing, behavior, behavioral,
     bluff, bluffing, buffoonery, business, characterization, cheating,
     color, coloring, deception, delusion, deputative, deputy, disguise,
     dissemblance, dissembling, dissimulation, doing, dumb show,
     embodiment, employment, enacting, enactment, exercise, facade,
     face, fakery, faking, false air, false front, false show, falsity,
     feigning, feint, four-flushing, fraud, front, function, functional,
     functioning, gag, gilt, gloss, going, going on, ham, hammy acting,
     hoke, hokum, humbug, humbuggery, imitation, impersonation,
     imposture, in exercise, in force, in hand, in operation, in play,
     in practice, in process, in the works, inaction, incarnation,
     interim, masquerade, meretriciousness, mimesis, mimicking, mimicry,
     miming, movements, mummery, occupation, on foot, on the fire,
     ongoing, operating, operation, operational, operations,
     ostentation, outward show, overacting, pantomime, pantomiming,
     patter, performance, performing, personation, personification,
     play, playacting, playing, portrayal, pose, posing, posture,
     practice, practicing, praxis, pretense, pretension, pretext,
     pro tem, pro tempore, projection, representation, representative,
     running, seeming, semblance, serving, sham, show, simulacrum,
     simulation, slapstick, speciousness, stage business,
     stage directions, stage presence, stunt, supply, swing,
     taking a role, varnish, window dressing, work, working, workings