n. [Lat. actus, s., fr. agere, Fr. acte. See supra.]
1. That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; performance; deed.
That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts,
Of kindness and of love. Wordsworth.
This woman was taken . . . in the very act. John viii. 4.
Hence, in specific uses, (a.) The result of public deliberation, or the decision of a prince, legislative body, council, court of justice, or magistrate; a decree, edict, law, judgment, resolve, award, determination; as, an act of parliament, or of congress. (b.) A book, record, or writing, containing laws and determinations; any instrument in writing to verify facts. (c.) One of the larger or principal divisions of a play or other theatrical performance, in which a certain definite part of the action is completed. (d.) A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student. (e.) The time when masters and doctors complete their degrees, at the university of Oxford, Eng.
2. A state of reality, or real existence, as opposed to a possibility, or possible existence.
The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be. Hooker.
3. A state of preparation, readiness, or incipient action. “In act to strike.” Dryden.
Act of faith. See AUTO DA FE.—Act of God (Law), any unavoidable accident or event which takes place without human intervention, or which can not be referred to any specific cause.—Act in pais, a thing done out of court, and not a matter of record.—Acts of sederunt (Scots Law), statutes made by the lords of session, sitting in judgment, by virtue of a Scottish act of parliament (1540), empowering them to make such constitutions or regulations as they may think expedient for ordering the procedure and forms of administering justice. Brande.
Syn.—See ACTION.