ACT

Definitions

1. 1. To move to action; to actuate; to animate. [Obs.] Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul. Pope.
2. 2. To perform; to execute; to do. [Archaic] That we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity. Jer. Taylor. Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do. Barrow. Uplifted hands that at convenient times Could act extortion and the worst of crimes. Cowper.
3. 3. To perform, as an actor; to represent dramatically on the stage.
4. 4. To assume the office or character of; to play; to personate; as, to act the hero.
5. 5. To feign or counterfeit; to simulate. With acted fear the villain thus pursued. Dryden. To act a part, to sustain the part of one of the characters in a play; hence, to simulate; to dissemble. -- To act the part of, to take the character of; to fulfill the duties of.