action 
\Vhat dangerous action, stood it next to death, 
Would I not undergo for one calm look ! 
Shot., T. G. of V., v. 4. 
An action is the perfection and publication of thought. 
Emerson, Nature. 
The word action is properly applied to those exertion^ 
which are consequent on volition, whether the exertion 
be made on external objects, or be confined to our mental 
operations. D. Stewart, Works, VI. 121. 
3. An exertion of power or force ; the real rela- 
tion of a cause to its effect; causality; influ- 
ence ; agency ; operation ; impulse : as, the ac- 
tion of wind upon a ship's sails. 
The action which given electrical masses exert on the 
exterior of any closed surface is the same as that of a layer 
of the same mass spread on this surface according to a 
certain law. Atkinson, tr. of Mascart and Joubert, I. 44. 
4. Manner of moving ; kind of motion or physi- 
cal performance : as, this horse has fine action; 
the action of a machine. 
Imitate the action of the tiger. Shak., Hen. V., iii. 1. 
5. In rhet., gesture or gesticulation ; the deport- 
ment of the speaker, or the accommodation of 
his attitude, voice, gestures, and countenance 
to the subject, or to the thoughts and feelings 
expressed. 
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. 
Shak., Hamlet, iii. 2. 
Whilst the true brood of actors, that alone 
Keep nat'ral, uustrain'd Action in her throne, 
Behold their benches bare. Carew, To Daveuaut. 
6. In poetry and the drama, the connected 
series of events on which the interest of the 
piece depends ; the main subject or story, as 
distinguished from an incidental action or epi- 
sode. Unity of action is one of the dramatic 
unities. 
This action should have three qualifications : first, it 
should be one action ; secondly, it should be an entire ac- 
tion ; and thirdly, it should be a great action. 
Addismi, Spectator, No. 287. 
7. In physiol. : (a) Any one of the active pro- 
cesses going on in an organized body ; some 
manifestation of vital activity ; the perform- 
ance of a function : as, the action of the 
stomach or the gastric juice on the food ; a 
morbid action of the liver, (ft) A more or less 
complex muscular effort. It may be voluntary, as 
the contractions of the voluntary muscles in response to 
the will; involuntary, as those of the heart; mixed, as those 
of respiration, deglutition, etc.; or reflex, as most involun- 
tary actions, and also those performed by voluntary mus- 
cles under the influence of stimuli without involving con- 
scious volition. 
8. In law : (a) A proceeding instituted in court 
by one or more parties against another or others 
to enforce a right, or punish or redress a wrong : 
distinguished from judicial proceedings which 
are not controversial in form, as the probate of a 
will. (6) Such a proceeding under the forms of 
the common law, as distinguished from a chan- 
cery suit and a criminal prosecution. But since 
the merger of law and equity, the remedy formerly had 
by suit in chancery is had by an equitable action. In the 
wider sense an action is civil or criminal : it is criminal 
when instituted by the sovereign for the punishment of a 
crime (see criminal) ; civil when instituted by the sover- 
eign power in its capacity as an owner or contracting 
party, or by a subject or citizen. A criminal action is fre- 
quently spoken of as an indictment, which, however, is 
only one kind of formal complaint by which such a pro- 
ceeding may be commenced or presented for trial. A 
common-law action is real, personal, or mixed : real when 
it claims title to real estate ; personal when it demands a 
chattel, a debt, damages for an injury, or a statutory pen- 
alty ; and mixed when it demands both real estate and 
damages for a wrong. Actions are in personam or in rein : 
in personam when the party defendant is a natural person 
or a corporation ; in rem when it is a thing the ownership 
of which it is sought to change or affect, as when it is 
sought to make damages for a collision at sea a lieu on 
the guilty ship, or to confiscate smuggled property. Ac- 
tions where, the defendant being out of the reach of the 
court, a judgment against him will bind only his property 
previously attached, and actions merely to determine the 
status of the parties, as for divorce, are also sometimes 
properly called actions in rein; for the property attached 
and the status, respectively, are in one sense the subjects 
of the action, and it is their presence which enables the 
roiirt to exercise its jurisdiction as against persons ab- 
sent. See also in personam, in rem. ((*) The right 
of bringing an action : as, the law gives an 
action for every claim. [The following French phrases 
are common in Canadian law : Action en declaration 
d'hypotheyue, action, by a creditor having a hypothec, 
against a third person in possession of the real property, 
to have it declared subject to the hypothec. Action en 
intfn-itjttion (de prescription'), an action brought to inter- 
rupt the running of the time fixed in a statute of limita- 
tions as a bar to an action. Action en revendication, action 
in replevin ; an action by the alleged owner of property to 
recover possession. Action hypothecate, an action brought 
by the hypothecary creditor against a third person holding 
the property subject to the hypothec, the object bein^ to 
have the property or its value applied to pay the debt. 
Action ne'aatoire, an action by the owner of real property 
against any person exercising an alleged right of servitude 
or easement on the property, praying that such alleged 
right be declared unfounded and that such person be per- 
petually barred from its exercise. Action papula!*', a 
qui tarn action ; an action in the interest of the public. 1 
61 
9. In the fine arty : () The appearance of ani- 
mation, movement, or passion given to figures 
by their attitude, position, or expression, either 
singly or concurrently. (6) The event or epi- 
sode represented or illustrated by a work of art. 
10. A military fight ; a minor engagement be- 
tween armed bodies of men, whether on land 
or water: of less importance than a battle. See 
battle. 
How many gentlemen have you lost in this action ; 
Shak., Much Ado, i. 1. 
A general action now ensued, which, after the loss of 
several killed and wounded, terminated in the retreat of 
the British party towards the centre of the town. 
Everett, Orations, p. 90. 
1 1 . In much. : (a) The mechanism of a breech- 
loading gun by which it is opened to receive 
the charge. (5) That part of the mechanism of 
a pianoforte, an organ, or other similar instru- 
ment by which the action of the fingers upon 
the keys is transmitted to the strings, reeds, etc. 
In a harp the action is a mechanism, controlled by pedals, 
by which the key is changed by a half or whole step. 
12. [A French usage.] A share in the capital 
stock of a company ; in the plural, stocks, or 
shares of stock Abandonment of an action. See 
abandonment. Accessory action. See accessory. Ac- 
tion of account. See account. Action of adherence. 
See adherence. Action of a moving system, in meeh., 
twice the time-integral of the kinetic energy, which is 
equal to the sum of the average momentums for the spaces 
described by the parts of the system from any era, each 
multiplied by the length of its path. Action of ejection 
and intrusion. See ejection. Action of ejectment. 
See ejectment and casual. Action Of foreclosure. See 
foreclosure. Action of mesue profits. See meme. 
Action on the case. See caeei. Amicable action. 
See a in icablr. Angle Of action. See angle*. Back ac- 
tion, (a) In marine engines, action in which the connec- 
tions between the piston-rod and the crank are reversed. 
In this arrangement, which is sometimes used where a sav- 
ing of longitudinal space is desired, parallel side-bars con- 
nect the cross-head of the piston-rod with a cross-tail, and 
from this a connecting-rod extends to the shaft at the same 
end of the cylinder as the cross-head. The opposite of 
direct action (see below). (6) In firearms, when the locks 
are bedded into the stock alone. E. H. Kniyht. Cause 
of action. See cause. Chemical action, action within 
a molecule, or between molecules, of matter, by which 
atoms are added, removed, or rearranged. It is often 
attended with evolution of heat and light. See chemical. 
Chose In action. See chosei. Circuity of action. 
See circuity. Concourse Of actions. See concourse. 
Concurrence of actions. See concurrence. Con- 
solidation of actions. See consolidation. Currents 
of action. See current. Declaratory action. See 
declarator. Direct action, in a steam-engine, action in 
which the piston-rod or cross-head is directly connected 
by a rod with the crank. Double action, in mach., ac- 
tion, as of a piston, in which work is done at every stroke 
or reciprocal movement. Droitural action. See droi- 
tural. Equivocal action, one in which the effect is of 
a different species from the agent, as the action of a blow 
upon a drum, causing it to sound. Form of action. 
See form. Gist of an action. See gist 2. Immanent 
action, one whose effect is within the agent or cause ; 
transient action, one whose effect is an object other 
than its cause. 
In the action immanent the agent and the patient are 
the same ; in the transient different, in the thing itself. 
Burffersdicius, tr. by a Gentleman, i. 8. 
In action, in a condition or state of activity ; in active 
operation. Law of action and reaction, Newton's 
third law of motion. It is as follows : To every action 
there is always an equal and contrary reaction ; or the 
mutual actions of two bodies are always equal and oppo- 
sitely directed. By action here is to be understood the 
force, or sometimes (according to Newton) the product 
of its effective component into the velocity of its point 
of application. While the first two laws of motion de- 
termine how forces of every conceivable kind affect bod- 
ies, and what motions they produce, the third is more 
positive, in that it begins the description of the forces 
that are actually found in nature, by enunciating the 
proposition that the algebraic sum of all the forces that 
are called into play on each occasion is zero. The follow- 
ing passage gives Newton's comments on this law, in the 
language of Thomson and Tait, except that the original 
word action is restored, in place of the word activity which 
those authors substitute for it, in order to avoid confusion 
with the action of a moving system, as defined above : "If 
one body presses or draws another, it is pressed or drawn 
by this other with an equal force in the opposite direction. 
If any one presses a stone with his finger, his finger is 
pressed with the same force in the opposite direction by 
the stone. A horse towing a boat on a canal is dragged 
backwards by a force equal to that which he impresses on 
the towing-rope forwards. By whatever amount, and in 
whatever direction, one body has its motion changed by 
impact upon another, this other body has its motion 
changed by the same amount in the opposite direction ; 
for at each instant during the impact the force between 
them was equal and opposite on the two. When neither 
of the two bodies has any rotation, whether before or 
after the impact, the changes of velocity which they ex- 
perience are proportional to their masses. When one 
body attracts another from a distance, this other attracts 
it with an equal and opposite force. If the action of an 
agent be measured by its amount and velocity conjointly, 
and if, similarly, the reaction of the resistance be measured 
by the velocities of its several parts and their several 
amounts conjointly, whether these arise from friction, co- 
hesion, weight, or acceleration, action and reaction, in 
all combinations of machines, will be equal and opposite." 
Local action (in a voltaic cell). See amalgamate. i: 
Perflcient action, that action which changes the 
thing acted upon without destroying it; corrupting 
active 
action, that which destroys it. Principle of least 
action, of Maupertuis, the principle that, of all the dif- 
ferent sets of paths along which a conservative system 
my tie guided from one configuration to another, with 
its total energy constant, that one for which the action 
is the least is such that the system will require only 
to be started with the proper velocities to move along it 
ungllided. Single action, in mach., action, as of a pis- 
ton or plunger, in which work is performed on only one of 
two or more strokes : as, a single-action pump, one in 
which the water is raised on every alternate stroke, or the 
upward lift of the pump-rod. To take action, to take 
steps in regard to anything ; specifically, to institute legal 
proceedings. Univocal action, that by which an agent 
produces an etfect of the same species as itself ; thus, the 
action of heat in heating a body by conduction isunivocal. 
- Wave-action, in <iuu., abnormally high pressure in a 
gun from very large charges. = SyTL Action, Act, Deed. In 
many cases these words are synonymous, but action (in the 
singular) denotes more particularly the operation, act and 
deed the accomplished result. Only action may be used 
to signify the doing or the method of doing ; it is also the 
word for ordinary activity, act signifying that which is 
more notable or dignified. An action may include many 
acts, while act is generally individual. An exception to 
this is in the use of the word act to indicate a section 
of a play, which is a survival of old usage ; yet action is in 
this connection broader than act, covering the movement 
of the plot through all the acts : as, in Macbeth the action 
is highly tragic. A course of action; his action was con- 
tinued ; repeated acts of humanity ; his acts were incon- 
sistent. Deed in old usage had a very general application, 
but in modern usage it is applied chiefly to acts which are 
for any reason especially noteworthy ; it is a more formal 
word than action or act. The A cts of the Apostles, the ac- 
tion of a watch ; the acts of a prince, the actions of chil- 
dren ; an act of mercy ; a deed of valor ; a base deed or act. 
For comparison with/o, etc., see/eat. 
Fundamentally there is no such thing as private action. 
All actions are public in themselves or their conse- 
quences. Bovee, Summaries of Thought. 
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. 
J. Fletcher, Honest Man's Fortune, 1. 37. 
Who doth right deeds 
Is twice-born, and who doeth ill deeds vile. 
Kdirin Arnold, Light of Asia, vi. 78. 
action (ak'shon), f. t. [(action, n.] To bring 
a legal action against. [Rare.] 
actionable (ak'shon-a-bl), a. [< ML. actiona- 
bili.i, < L. actio(n-), action: see action.] Fur- 
nishing sufficient ground for an action at law : 
as, to call a man a thief is actionable. 
Many things which have been said in such papers . . . 
are equally actionable. The American, VIII. 5. 
actionably (ak'shon-a-bli), adv. In an action- 
able manner ; in a manner that may subject to 
leg_al process. 
actipnal (ak'shon-al), a. Of or pertaining to 
action or actions. Grote. 
actionary (ak'shon-a-ri), n. ; pi. actionariefi 
(-riz). [=F. actionnaire, < ML. actionarius, ( L. 
actio(n-), action: see action.'] A shareholder in 
a joint-stock company ; one who owns actions 
(see action, 12) or shares of stock. Also called 
actionist. [Chiefly used of French subjects.] 
actioner (ak'shon-er), n. The workman who 
makes or adapts the action of an instrument, 
as of a piano, etc. 
actionist (ok'shon-ist), n. [< action + -ist.] 
Same as actiotuiry. 
actionize (ak'shon-iz), r. t. [< action + -ize.] To 
bring a legal action against. [Rare.] N. E. D. 
actionless (ak'shon-les), a. [< action + -less.] 
Without action ; inert. 
action-sermon (ak'shon-ser'mpn), 11. In the 
Presbyterian churches of Scotland, the sermon 
preached before the celebration of the com- 
munion. 
action-takingt (ak'shon-ta"king), a. Litigious ; 
accustomed to seek redress by law instead of 
by the sword : an epithet of contempt. 
A lily-liver'd, action-taking . . . rogue. 
Shak., Lear, ii. 2. 
actioust (ak'sbus), a. [< action + -ous. Cf. fac- 
tions.] Active ; full of activity ; full of energy. 
He knows you to be eager men, martial men, men of 
good stomachs, very hot shots, very actions for valour. 
Dekker ami Webster (?),Sir Thomas Wyat, p. 44. 
actitation (ak-ti-ta'shon), n. [< L. as if *ac- 
titatio(n-), < actitare, act or plead frequently, 
used only of lawsuits and dramas ; double freq. 
of agere, act, do.] Frequent action ; specifi- 
cally, the debating of lawsuits. [Rare.] 
activate! (ak'ti-vat), v. t. [< active + -ate%.] 
To make active ; intensify. 
Snow and ice, especially being holpeu, and their cold 
activated by nitre or salt, will turn water to ice, and that 
iu a few hours. Bacon, Nat. Hist., 88. 
active (ak'tiv), . [< ME. actif, < OF. actif, F. 
actif, -ive, < L. activus, (.agere, do, act : see act, n.] 
1. Having the power or property of acting; tend- 
ing to cause change or communicate action or 
motion ; capable of exerting influence : opposed 
to passive : as, attraction is an active power. 
When the mind has a passive sensibility, hut no active 
strength. Hairthorne, Twice-Told Tales, II. 83. 
