Word.ws English Dictionary

out of action

out of action prepositional phrase: unable to work or function, often due to a particular event.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Unable to work or function, often due to a particular event.
    • Press reports of the length of time the bridge is likely to be out of action vary greatly, but Mr. Farr gathers that a temporary structure may be ready in six months; complete reconstruction, however, will take at least two years. [It was never rebuilt or replaced, and demolished instead.]1960 January, “Talking of Trains: The Seven Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5
    • In 2004, after heavy rain fell on sodden ground, floods put the line out of action from February until May.2020 August 26, Andrew Mourant, “Reinforced against future flooding”, in Rail, page 61

Questions about out of action

What does out of action mean?
Out of action means unable to work or function, often due to a particular event.
What part of speech is out of action?
Out of action is a prepositional phrase.

Words near out of action in the dictionary

  1. out like a light
  2. out loud
  3. out of
  4. out of a job
  5. out of a nightmare
  6. out of action
  7. Out of Africa
  8. out of all proportion
  9. out of battery
  10. out of bed
  11. out of book

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out of action (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.

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Cite this entry: “out of action.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/out_of_action. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.