What's the difference between act and devour?

Act


Definition:

  • (n.) That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a performance; a deed.
  • (n.) The result of public deliberation; the decision or determination of a legislative body, council, court of justice, etc.; a decree, edit, law, judgment, resolve, award; as, an act of Parliament, or of Congress.
  • (n.) A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has been done.
  • (n.) A performance of part of a play; one of the principal divisions of a play or dramatic work in which a certain definite part of the action is completed.
  • (n.) A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
  • (n.) A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence.
  • (n.) Process of doing; action. In act, in the very doing; on the point of (doing).
  • (v. t.) To move to action; to actuate; to animate.
  • (v. t.) To perform; to execute; to do.
  • (v. t.) To perform, as an actor; to represent dramatically on the stage.
  • (v. t.) To assume the office or character of; to play; to personate; as, to act the hero.
  • (v. t.) To feign or counterfeit; to simulate.
  • (v. i.) To exert power; to produce an effect; as, the stomach acts upon food.
  • (v. i.) To perform actions; to fulfill functions; to put forth energy; to move, as opposed to remaining at rest; to carry into effect a determination of the will.
  • (v. i.) To behave or conduct, as in morals, private duties, or public offices; to bear or deport one's self; as, we know not why he has acted so.
  • (v. i.) To perform on the stage; to represent a character.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The high amino acid levels in the cells suggest that these cells act as inter-organ transporters and reservoirs of amino acids, they have a different role in their handling and metabolism from those of mammals.
  • (2) Although Jeggo's Chinese hamster ovary cells were more responsive to mAMSA, novo still abrogated mAMSA toxicity in the mutant cells as well as in the parental Chinese hamster ovary cells 2,4-Dinitrophenol acted similarly to novo with respect to mAMSA killing, but neither compound reduced the ATP content of V79 cells.
  • (3) administration of the potent short-acting opioid, fentanyl, elicited inhibition of rhythmic spontaneous reflex increases in vesical pressure (VP) evoked by urinary bladder distension.
  • (4) Family therapists have attempted to convert the acting-out behavioral disorders into an effective state, i.e., make the family aware of their feelings of deprivation by focusing on the aggressive component.
  • (5) It is suggested that the rapid phase is due to clearance of peptides in the circulation which results in a fall to lower blood concentrations which are sustained by slow release of peptide from binding sites which act as a depot.
  • (6) Peptides from this region bind to actin, act as mixed inhibitors of the actin-stimulated S1 Mg2(+)-ATPase, and influence the contractile force developed in skinned fibres, whereas peptides flanking this sequence are without effect in our test systems.
  • (7) Comprehensive regulations are being developed to limit human exposure to contamination in drinking water by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the authority of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
  • (8) Pedigree studies have suggested that there may be an inherited predisposition to many apparently nonfamilial colorectal cancers and a genetic model of tumorigenesis in common colorectal cancer has been proposed that includes the activation of dominantly acting oncogenes and the inactivation of growth suppressor genes.
  • (9) Propofol is ideal for short periods of care on the ICU, and during weaning when longer acting agents are being eliminated.
  • (10) We have investigated interactions between the erythroid transcription factor GATA-1 and factors binding two cis-acting elements commonly linked to GATA sites in erythroid control elements.
  • (11) These later results suggest that dopamine agonists increase sensorimotor reactivity measured with acoustic startle by acting on sensory rather than motor parts of the reflex arc.
  • (12) Dietary factors affect intestinal P450s markedly--iron restriction rapidly decreased intestinal P450 to beneath detectable values; selenium deficiency acted similarly but was less effective; Brussels sprouts increased intestinal AHH activity 9.8-fold, ECOD activity 3.2-fold, and P450 1.9-fold; fried meat and dietary fat significantly increased intestinal EROD activity; a vitamin A-deficient diet increased, and a vitamin A-rich diet decreased intestinal P450 activities; and excess cholesterol in the diet increased intestinal P450 activity.
  • (13) It was not clear whether Mn2+ acted at the presynaptic membrane, the postsynaptic membrane or both.
  • (14) She added: “We will continue to act upon the overwhelming majority view of our shareholders.” The vote was the second year running Ryanair had suffered a rebellion on pay.
  • (15) In this paper sensitive and selective bioassays are described for growth factors acting on substrate-attached cells, in particular members of the epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factor beta, platelet-derived growth factor, insulin-like growth factor, and heparin-binding growth factor families.
  • (16) Evidence is presented that the protein can act catalytically.
  • (17) It was concluded that Ta acts as a weak zeitgeber in laboratory rats and has greater effects on males compared to females.
  • (18) That’s a criticism echoed by Democrats in the Senate, who issued a report earlier this month criticising Republicans for passing sweeping legislation in July to combat addiction , the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (Cara), but refusing to fund it.
  • (19) Tumorigenesis is a multistep process involving mutations of dominantly acting proto-oncogenes and mutations and loss-of-function mutations of tumor suppressor genes.
  • (20) In one of Pruitt’s first official acts, for example, he overruled the recommendation of his own agency’s scientists, based on years of meticulous research, to ban a pesticide shown to cause nerve damage, one that poses a clear risk to children, farmworkers and rural drinking water supplies.

Devour


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To eat up with greediness; to consume ravenously; to feast upon like a wild beast or a glutton; to prey upon.
  • (v. t.) To seize upon and destroy or appropriate greedily, selfishly, or wantonly; to consume; to swallow up; to use up; to waste; to annihilate.
  • (v. t.) To enjoy with avidity; to appropriate or take in eagerly by the senses.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) She devoured political science texts, took evening classes at Goldsmiths college, and performed at protests and fundraisers, but became disillusioned.
  • (2) On land, sand miners have devoured whole swaths of beach, from Jamaica to Russia.
  • (3) I gaze at it across the street and, as if by magic, I ache with longing, just as I used to in the days when a trip here was the most enjoyable thing I could possibly imagine: when books were all I wanted, when I thought of them as pieces of ripe fruit, waiting to be peeled and devoured.
  • (4) Within half an hour, George Galloway – the native of Dundee, MP for Bradford West, a former Labour MP for inner Glasgow, and figurehead of the Respect party – is sitting in Wetherspoon's, devouring fish and chips and granting about a dozen requests for photographs.
  • (5) The contents of the posterior cranial fossa are actively "sucked up", "devoured" by the latter.
  • (6) Kentucky secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes began the night recalling that the soon-to-be nominee loves lifestyle TV “and can devour buffalo wings”.
  • (7) She reels off esoteric book recommendations ("I just devoured this great book about the mistaken theories of pre-historic sexuality.
  • (8) Tissue samples from partly devoured carcasses contained T. spiralis larvae, implicating cannibalism as a major vehicle for the spread of T. spiralis in the herd.
  • (9) This is the real deal, what people want, what they can’t wait to devour.
  • (10) Partners of depressives experience themselves often as being totally in their hands respectively "devoured" by them.
  • (11) But now players devour it.” Jürgen Klinsmann was the conduit in 2004 when he became Germany’s head coach.
  • (12) Desperate and with nowhere else to go, eventually I found a cheap hotel, which devoured my dwindling resources.
  • (13) Growing up in 1940s French Algeria, the young Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent dreamed of Paris: a bullied outcast at school, he escaped into fantasy at home – devouring his mother's fashion magazines, sketching endlessly, and predicting (in the safety of his adoring family circle, at least) a future of spectacular fame.
  • (14) The monster the US has unleashed on the rest of the world is steadily devouring its own.
  • (15) I say to them: ‘Five minutes with this guy, and he’ll win you over.’” In a quiet restaurant in the City on Friday afternoon, over a selection of steak cuts that he devours efficiently, Joshua talks without edge about Fury, about his opponent in London on Saturday night, Dillian Whyte, and about himself.
  • (16) We tend to take our harmless fun where we find it – even if, like KidZania, it’s on the top floor of the next scourge devouring Bangkok, a giant shopping mall.
  • (17) Like other contemporary artists, Allen Jones being an obvious example, he devoured and then recycled the imagery of popular American magazines.
  • (18) I’m not being ironic: the bogs of western Britain and Ireland don’t freeze as they do in Scandinavia, so the geese can devour the roots of marshy plants on which they depend.
  • (19) The reef will also be aided by an $89m boost to programs such as the Reef Trust, a Coalition plan to improve water quality and tackle threats such as a plague of starfish which has devoured much of the reef’s coral.
  • (20) Applying pragmatism to her desire to learn English under communism, she devoured technical manuals and copies of the Morning Star .