action

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.

   Synonyms:

   deed

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. The way in which cartridges are loaded, locked, and extracted from the mechanism.
      • pump-action shotgun
6. A physical mechanism of a firearm or other device.
   • Spinola was hovering about the external fittings of the figure with unusual fussiness. When at length he released the left hand it seemed for an almost perceptible moment that the action hung. Then the arm descended and carried out the discard.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
   • He then took from under his shirts in another drawer a very flat ·25 Beretta automatic with a skeleton grip, extracted the clip and the single round in the barrel and whipped the action to and fro several times, finally pulling the trigger on the empty chamber.1953, Ian Fleming, “Pink Lights and Champagne”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 57
7. 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.
   • The run in bar 12 is almost impossible with this piano's heavy action.
8. The distance separating the strings and the fingerboard on a string instrument.
   • You're getting fret buzz because the action is too low.
9. (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.

   Synonyms:

   aphrodisia, carnal knowledge, coitus, coition, commerce, commixtion, congress, conjunction, connection, consummation

10. Combat.
    • He saw some action in the Korean War.
11. A charge or other process in a law court (also called lawsuit and actio).

    Synonyms:

    suit, cause, lawsuit, litigation

12. A way in which each element of some algebraic structure transforms some other structure or set, in a way which respects the structure of the first. Formally, this may be seen as a morphism from the first structure into some structure of endomorphisms of the second; for example, a group action of a group G on a set S can be seen as a group homomorphism from G into the set of bijections on S (which form a group under function composition), while a module M over a ring R can be defined as an abelian group together with a ring homomorphism from R into the ring of group endomorphisms of M (which is also called the action of R on M).

Interjection

1. Demanding or signifying the start of something, usually a performance.
   • The director yelled ‘Action!’ after the cameras started rolling.

   Antonyms:

   cut

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) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.
   • ‘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.’2004, Ros Jay, Richard Templar, “Fast thinking: project”, in Fast Thinking Manager's Manual, 2nd edition, Pearson Education, →ISBN, Fast Thinking Leader, page 276
   • Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.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...
2. (archaic, transitive) To initiate a legal action against someone.
   • ‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’1856, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England, new revised edition, Stringer & Townsend, Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own, page 270
   • “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! [...]”1844, Robert Mackenzie Daniel, The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress, volume I, T. C. Newby, Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady, pages 189–190