Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ACT, v.t.

1. To perform; to represent a character on the stage. Act well your part, there all the honor lies. – Pope.
2. To feign or counterfeit. [Obs. or improper.] With acted fear the villain thus pursued. – Dryden.
3. To put in motion; to actuate; to regulate movements. Most people in the world are acted by levity. – South. Locke. [In this latter sense obsolete, and superseded by Actuate, which see.]