[orig. a. Fr. acte, but in some of the senses referring directly to L. actus a doing, and actum a thing done (pl. acta).]
1. A thing done; a deed, a performance (of an intelligent being).
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. of Fame, 347. And al youre actes red and songe [MS. Bodl. actys].
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 99. Thay have no Hertys to do so terryble an Acte.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lix. 12. Thorow God we shal do greate actes, for it is he that shal treade downe oure enemies.
1584. Powel, Lloyd’s Cambria, 99. The prowesse and worthie Actes of the ancient Brytaines.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref. As worthy an acte as euer he did.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, III. i. 925. An act and deed that makes one heart Become another’s Counter-part.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 74. And snatch some portion of their acts from fate.
1832. J. Austin, Lect. Jurispr., xviii. (1879), I. 427. The only objects which can be called acts are the consequences of volitions … The involuntary movements which are the consequences of certain diseases are not acts.
b. A thing done as the result, practical outcome, or external manifestation of any state, and, whence the state may be inferred.
1751. Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. ii. 27. God required of him this act of obedience.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., II. 477. This hath been declared by the legislature to be an act of bankruptcy, upon which a commission may be sued out.
Mod. It would be the act of a madman.
† 2. A state of accomplished fact or reality, as distinguished from subjective existence, intention, possibility, etc. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. i. (1495), 78. The noblest thynges of shappes of kynde and of crafte that be hydde comyth forth in acte and in dede.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. iii. 135. if I in act, consent, or sinne of thought Be guiltie.
1662. More, Antid. agst. Ath., Ep. Ded. (1712), 2. Plato, if he were alive again, might find his timorous supposition brought into absolute Act.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., 109. They are only in possibility, and not in act.
† 3. ? Activity, active principle. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. xxiv. (1495), 74. The soule is acte and perfeccion of the body.
1652. J. Burroughes, Exp. Hosea, v. 92. Grace is called the Divine nature, and God (we know) is a pure act, and it is called the life of God.
1694. R. L’Estrange, Fables, clxv. (1714), 179. Nothing can be more contrary to God Himself, who is a Pure Act, then the Sleeping and Drowsing away of our Life and Reason.
1730. Beveridge, Priv. Thoughts, I. 18. But my Reason tells me, God is a pure Act, and therefore How can He suffer any Punishments.
4. The process of doing; acting, action, operation. (L. actus.) arch. exc. in Act of God: action of uncontrollable natural forces in causing an accident, as the burning of a ship by lightning.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 579. The acte of Frenshmen standynge moche in ouer rydynge of theyr aduersaryes by force of speremen.
1594. Drayton, Idea, 860. Wise in Conceit, in Act a very sot.
1635. J. Swan, Spec. Mundi, v. § 2. (1643), 130. The Materiall cause [of the rainbow] is not water in act.
1732. Pope, Ess. on Man, ii. 105. The rising tempest puts in act the soul.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 340. To give such act and utt’rance as they may To extasy too big to be suppress’d.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 193. And hear the flow of souls in act and speech.
1882. Charter-party: The Act of God, the Queen’s Enemies, Fire, and all and every other Dangers and Accidents of the Seas … always excepted.
b. In act: in the process, in the very doing; in the interval, however momentary, between the inception and completion of the deed; on the point of. (L. in actu.)
1596. Shaks., Merch. Ven., I. iii. 84. When the worke of generation was Betweene these woolly breeders in the act.
1611. Bible, John viii. 4. This woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, III. i. 666. And off the loud oaths go, but, while They’re in the very act, recoil.
c. 1746. J. Hervey, Medit. & Contempl. (1818), 220. It is in the very act to fly.
1826. Southey, Vind. Eccl. Angl., 86. He was in the very act of death.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Armour, v. 78. When armour was in the act of ceasing to be worn.
5. Something transacted in council, or in a deliberative assembly; hence, a decree passed by a legislative body, a court of justice, etc. (L. actum, pl. acta.)
1458. in Dom. Archit., III. 43. This was preved acte also in the perlement.
1535. Coverdale, Josh. xxiv. 26. Iosua wrote this acte in the boke of the lawe of God.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. ii. 91. You … Haue caus’d him by new act of Parliament, To blot out me, and put his owne Sonne in.
1640–1. Kirkcudbright War-Com. Min. Bk. (1855), 98. All fugitives must be apprehendit and punished conforme to the actes.
1693. Mem. Count Teckely, II. 91. The Male-contents demanded a general Act of Indempnity.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Praise of Wealth, Wks. 1730, I. 83. Before this proclamation passed into an irrevocable act.
1795. Sewel, trans. Hist. Quakers, II. VII. 66. They asked him if he knew not of an act against meetings.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 373. An act of attainder was passed against York, Salisbury, their wives and children.
6. A record of transactions or decrees; any instrument in writing to verify facts. (L. actum, pl. acta.)
1535. Coverdale, Ezra vi. 2. A boke, & in it was there an acte wrytten after this maner.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, I. i. 143. He could reduce all things to Acts.
1704. Nelson, Festiv. & Fasts (1739), 7. In the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Ignatius we find.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 27. Judicial Acts are said to be all those Writings, and matters which relate to Judicial Proceedings, and are sped in open Court at the Instance of one of the Parties Litigant; and, being reduced into writing by a Publick Notary … are recorded by the Authority of the Judge.
1789. Constit. U.S., iv. § 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state.
1821. Byron, M. Faliero, I. i. (1868), 315. The ducal table cover’d o’er With … petitions, Despatches, judgements, acts, reprieves, reports.
b. Acts (of the Apostles), name of one of the books of the N. Test.
1539. Tonstall, Serm. on Palme sondaye (1823), 55. It appereth playnly in the x. of the actes.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Paraphr. Rom., Argt. As Luke in the xxi chapiter of thactes reherseth.
1833. Cruse, trans. Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., II. x. 59. It is also recorded in the book of Acts.
7. A ‘performance’ of part of a play; hence, One of the main divisions of a dramatic work, in which a definite part of the whole action is completed. Also often fig. (L. actus.)
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., Epil. 3. Some come to take their case, And sleepe an act or two.
c. 1615. Fletcher, Mad Lover, I. 21. Away then: our Act’s ended.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 156, ¶ 8. An act is only the representation of such a part of the business of the play as proceeds in an unbroken tenor, or without any intermediate pause.
1769. Junius Lett., xxiii. 112. Can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of life?
1858. De Quincey, Grk. Trag., in Wks. IX. 64. The very meaning of an act is, that in the intervals, the suspension of the acts, any possible time may elapse, and any possible action go on.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. x. 507. We are approaching the close of the first act of our great drama.
8. In the Universities, a thesis publicly maintained by a candidate for a degree, or to show a student’s proficiency.
At Oxford, the Act took place early in July. The graduates kept Acts, or discussed theses, on Saturday and Monday, on the intervening Act Sunday, two of the new Doctors of Divinity preached Act Sermons before the University. The Act was last held after long interruption in 1733; in 1856 the name, with all that related to the ceremony, was removed from the Statute-book, and only survives in the appellation Act Term sometimes given to Trinity Term. At Cambridge, the name is still given to the thesis and accompanying examination required for the obtainment of the doctor’s degree in Divinity, Law and Medicine.
1641. Ld. Brooke, Disc. Nat. Episc., II. vii. 118. They desire they may have leave (as Probationers) to exercise, or keepe Acts, before the Church; ’till the Church shall approve of them.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 42. At the time … were divers created Doctors without attendance to keep Acts.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 182. Upon Act Sunday the same year he preached the University Sermon at S. Maries.
1695. Kennett, Paroch. Antiq., II. 58. This method was first reflected on by Mr. Peter Heylin, in an Act sermon at St. Mary’s in Oxon, July 11, 1630.
1713. Guardian, No. 72 (1756), I. 320. This paper is written with a design to make my journey to Oxford agreeable to me, where I design to be at the Publick Act.
1733. Berkeley, in Fraser’s Life, vi. 207. The approaching Act at Oxford is much spoken of.
1877. Camb. Univ. Calend., 51. The Degree of Bachelor in Divinity, for which the requisite Exercises are, one Act, and an English Sermon. The Act is required to be kept in the following manner:… The Candidate shall read a thesis composed in Latin by himself on some subject approved by the Professor; the Professor or graduate presiding, shall bring forward arguments or objections in English for the Candidate to answer, etc.
† 9. An auto da fé, or act of faith; a burning of heretics. Obs.
1709. Strype, Annals of Ref., xx. 228. In this act also were burnt the bones and picture of D. Ægidio.
