action (akshon)

[ The basis of Action , as distinguished from motion, or movement, is the existence of desire residing in the animate organism. L. F. Ward, Dynam. Sociol., II. 90. 2. An event considered as predicated of its cause; an act, usually in a complex or an inclusive sense; that which is done about or in relation to anything; a specific performance, proceeding, or course of conduct: as, a good or a bad action; actions speak louder than words; the action of a deliberative body. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions 1 Sam. ii. 3. action are weighed. What dangerous action , stood it next to death, Would I not undergo for one calm look! Shak., 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 exertions 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 relation of a cause to its effect; causality; influence; agency; operation; impulse: as, the ac tion of wind upon a ship's sails. The action which given electrical ma es exert on the exterior of any closed surface is the same as that of a layer of the same ma spread on this surface according to a certain law. At kins on , tr. of Mascart and Joubert, I. 44. 4. Manner of moving; kind of motion or physical 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 deportment of the speaker, or the accommodation of his attitude, voice, gestures, and countenance to the subject, or to the thoughts and feelings IMG:content-0226.png:[blocks in formation] How many gentlemen have you lost in this action? Shak., Much Ado, i. 1. A general action now ensued, which, after the lo of several killed and wounded, terminated in the retreat of the British party towards the centre of the town. Everett, Orations, p. 90. 11. In mach.: (a) The mechanism of a breech loading gun by which it is opened to receive the charge. (b) That part of the mechanism of a pianoforte, an organ, or other similar instrument 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. - Acce ory action. See acce ory. - Action of account. See account. - Action of adherence. See adherence. - Action of a moving system, in mech., 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 mesne profits. See mesne.Action on the case. See casel. - Amicable action. See amicable. - Angle of action. See angle3.-Back action. (a) In marine engines, action in which the cylinder is between the cro -head or cro -tail and the crank. In this arrangement, which is sometimes used where a saving of longitudinal space is desired, parallel side-bars connect the cro -head of the piston-rod with a cro -tail, and from this a connecting-rod extends to the shaft at the same end of the cylinder as the cro -head. The opposite of direct action (see below). (6) In firearms, when the locks are bedded into the stock alone. E. H. Knight. - 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 chose2.- Circuity of action. See circuity . - Concourse of actions. See concourse. - Concurrence of actions. See concurrence. - Consolidation of actions. See consolidation . - Currents of action. See current. Declaratory action. See declarator.- Direct action, in a steam-engine, action in which the pistorect heategiye annected by a rod with the crank.- Double action, in mach., action, 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. Burgersdicius , 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 oppositely 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. the first two of motion de termine how forces of every conceivable kind affect bodies, and what motions they produce, the third is more positive, it begins the description 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 following pa age 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 pre es or draws another, it is pre ed or drawn by this other with an equal force in the opposite direction. If any one pre es a stone with his finger, his finger is pre ed 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 impre es 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 experience are proportional to their ma es. 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 expre ed. 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, unstrain'd Action in her throne, Behold their benches bare. Carew , To Davenant. 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 episode. 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. Add is on , Spectator, No. 267. 7. In physiol.: (a) Any one of the active proce es going on in an organized body; some manifestation of vital activity; the performance of a function: as, the action of the stomach or the gastric juice on the food; a morbid action of the liver. (b) A more or le 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 involuntary actions, and also those performed by voluntary muscles under the influence of stimuli without involving conscious 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 redre a wrong: distinguished from judicial proceedings which are not controversial in form, as the probate of a will. (b) Such a proceeding under the forms of the common law, as distinguished from a chancery 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 sovereign power in its capacity as an owner or contracting party, or by a subject or citizen. A criminal action is frequently spoken of as an indictment , which, however, is only one kind of formal complaint by which such a proceeding 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 penalty; and mixed when it demands both real estate and damages for a wrong. Actions are in person am or in rem : in person am 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 lien on the guilty ship, or to confiscate smuggled property. Actions 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 rem ; 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 court to exercise its jurisdiction as against persons absent. See also in person am, in rem. (c) 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 déclara tion d'hypothèque, action, by a creditor having a hypothec, against a third person in po e ion of the real property, to have it declared subject to the hypothec. Action en interruption ( de préscript i on ), an action brought to inter rupt the running of the time fixed in a statute of limitations as a bar to an action. Action en revendication , action in replevin; an action by the alleged owner of property to recover po e ion. Action hypothécaire , an action brought by the hypothecary creditor against a third person holding the property subject to the hypothec, the object being to have the property or its value applied to pay the debt. Action négatoire, 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 perpetually barred from its exercise. Action populaire , a qui tam action; an action in the interest of the public.] by the velocities of its several parts and their several amounts conjointly, whether these arise from friction, cohesion, weight, or acceleration, action and reaction, in all combinations of machines, will be equal and opposite." Local action (in a voltaic cell). See amalgamate, v. -Perficient 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 different sets of paths along which a conservative system may be 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 unguided.- Single action, in mach., action, as of a piston 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 effect of the same species as itself; thus, the action of heat in heating a body by conduction is univocal. Wave-action, in gun ., abnormally high pre ure in a gun from very large charges. = Syn. 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 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 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 continued; repeated acts of humanity; his acts were inconsistent. 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 Acts of the Apostles, the ac tion of a watch; the acts of a prince, the actions of children; an act of mercy; a deed of valor; a base deed or act. For comparison with feat, etc., see feat. 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. Edwin Arnold , Light of Asia, vi. 78. action (ak's hon), v. t. [ bilis , L. actio (n-), action: see action .] Furnishing 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.... The American, VIII. 5. are equally actionable. actionably (ak's hon-a-bli), adv. In an actionable manner; in a manner that may subject to legal proce . actional (ak's hon-al), a. Of or pertaining to action or actions. Grote. action ary (ak's hon-a-ri), n.; pl. actionaries (-riz). [F. actionnaire,