Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ACT'OR, n.

1. He that acts or performs; an active agent.
2. He that represents a character or acts a part in a play; a stage player.
3. Among civilians, an advocate or proctor in civil courts of causes.

ACT'RESS, n.

A female who acts or performs, and especially, on the stage, or in a play.

ACT'U-AL, a. [Fr. actuel. See Act.]

1. Real or effectual, or that exists truly and absolutely; as, actual heat, opposed to that which is virtual or potential; actual cautery, or the burning by a red-hot iron, opposed to a cautery or caustic application, that may produce the same effect upon the body by a different process.
2. Existing in act; real; in opposition to speculative, or existing in theory only; as an actual crime.
3. In theology, actual sin is that which is committed by a person himself, opposed to original sin, or the corruption of nature supposed to be communicated from Adam.
4. That includes action. Besides her walking and other actual performances. [Hardly legitimate.] Shak.

ACT-U-AL'I-TY, n.

Reality. Haweis.

ACTU-AL-IZE, t.

To make actual.

ACT'U-AL-LY, adv.

In fact; really; in truth.

ACTU-AL-MING, ppr.

Making actual. Coleridge.

ACTU-AL-NESS, n.

The quality of being actual.

ACT'U-A-RY, n. [L. actuarius.]

A registrar or clerk; a term of the civil law, and used originally in courts of civil law jurisdiction; but in Europe used for a clerk or registrar generally.

ACT'U-ATE, a.

Put in action. [Little used.]

ACT'U-ATE, v.t. [From act.]

To put into action; to move or incite to action; as, men are actuated by motives, or passions. It seems to have been used formerly in the sense of invigorate, noting increase of action; but the use is not legitimate.

ACT'U-A-TED, pp.

Put in action; incited to action.

ACT'U-A-TING, ppr.

Putting in action; inciting to action.

ACT-U-A'TION, n.

The state of being put in action; effectual operation. Glanville.

ACT'US, n.

Among the Romans, a measure in building equal to 120 Roman feet. In agriculture, the length of one furrow.

AC'U-ATE, v.t. [L. acuo.]

To sharpen; to enhance.

AC'U-ATE, v.t. [L. acuo, to sharpen. See Acid.]

To sharpen; to make pungent, or corrosive. [Little used.] Harvey.

AC-U-BENE', n.

A star of the fourth magnitude in the southern claw of Cancer.

AC-U-I'TION, n. [from L. acuo, to sharpen.]

The sharpening of medicines to increase their effect.

A-CU'LE-ATE, a. [L. aculeus, from acus, Gr. {foreign}, a point, and the diminutive ul. See Acid.]

1. In botany, having prickles, or sharp points; pointed; used chiefly to denote prickles fixed in the bark, in distinction from thorns, which grow from the wood. Milne.
2. In zoology, having a sting.

A-CU'LE-I, n. [L.]

In botany and zoology, prickles.

AC'U-LON, or AC'U-LOS, n. [Gr. {foreign}, probably from {foreign}, an oak.]

The fruit or acorn of the ilex, or scarlet oak.

A-CU'MEN, n. [L. acumen, from acus or acuo.]

A sharp point; and figuratively, quickness of perception, the faculty of nice discrimination.

AC-U'MIN-ATE, a. [L. acuminatus, from acumen.]

Having a long projecting and highly tapering point. De Candolle.

AC-U'MIN-A-TED, a.

Sharpened to a point.