Library / English Dictionary

ACT ON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Carry further or advance

Example:

Can you act on this matter soon?

Synonyms:

act on; follow up on; pursue

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "act on" is one way to...):

oppose; react (act against or in opposition to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "act on"):

check out; run down (trace)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Regulate one's behavior in accordance with certain information, ideas, or advice

Example:

The Founding Fathers acted on certain moral principles

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "act on" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

A type of disease in which the nerve cells in the brain that act on muscle cells break down and stop working.

(Motor neuron disease, NCI Dictionary)

Mast cells release histamine, prostaglandins, and leukotrienes that act as chemokines, increase vascular permeability, and act on the vascular endothelium to increase tissue recruitment of leukocytes.

(Local Acute Inflammatory Response Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

ODLs act on the ribosome — the molecular machine of individual cells that makes the proteins it needs to function — of bacterial cells.

(A New Class of Antibiotics to Combat Drug Resistance, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

There were always key limitations when it came to figuring out how a drug will act on different tissues, different cells in an aging body.

(Scientists Find Natural Product That Slows Aging, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

If there is something you dearly want, act on that on that desire at or in the days following the November 26 new moon.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I tell you this plainly; and listen: for though I shall no more repeat what I am now about to say, I shall steadily act on it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I fear it was no dream, and must act on this surmise.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The Cambridge team showed that triclosan was able to target and act on this enzyme even in pyrimethamine-resistant parasites.

(Toothpaste ingredient may help fight drug-resistant malaria, University of Cambridge)

In the new study, researchers combine recent advances to disentangle the interplay between the constraints that act on the ice-liquid transition in nanometer-sized clusters.

(Scientists probe the limits of ice, National Science Foundation)

I am ashamed to say that it had never entered my head, but I was delighted to act on his proposal for both your sakes.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)