Word.ws English Dictionary

acting up

acting up is the present participle and gerund of act up.

Meaning of act up

Verb

act up (third-person singular simple present acts up, present participle acting up, simple past and past participle acted up)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To misbehave; to cause trouble.
    • My allergies act up during hay fever season.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To perform the duties of an appointment senior to that actually held; to deputise for a superior.
    • Acting up is always recommended when you find yourself under a new boss.

Questions about acting up

What is acting up the present participle and gerund of?
Acting up is the present participle and gerund of act up.

Words near acting up in the dictionary

  1. acting the goat
  2. acting the hypocrite
  3. acting the jennet
  4. acting the jinnet
  5. acting the maggot
  6. acting up
  7. acting upon
  8. actings
  9. actinia
  10. actiniae
  11. actinian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: acting up (page history and authors); act up (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “acting up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/acting_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.