(n.) A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action.
(n.) An act; a thing done; a deed; an enterprise. (pl.): Habitual deeds; hence, conduct; behavior; demeanor.
(n.) The event or connected series of events, either real or imaginary, forming the subject of a play, poem, or other composition; the unfolding of the drama of events.
(n.) Movement; as, the horse has a spirited action.
(n.) Effective motion; also, mechanism; as, the breech action of a gun.
(n.) Any one of the active processes going on in an organism; the performance of a function; as, the action of the heart, the muscles, or the gastric juice.
(n.) Gesticulation; the external deportment of the speaker, or the suiting of his attitude, voice, gestures, and countenance, to the subject, or to the feelings.
(n.) The attitude or position of the several parts of the body as expressive of the sentiment or passion depicted.
(n.) A suit or process, by which a demand is made of a right in a court of justice; in a broad sense, a judicial proceeding for the enforcement or protection of a right, the redress or prevention of a wrong, or the punishment of a public offense.
(n.) A right of action; as, the law gives an action for every claim.
(n.) A share in the capital stock of a joint-stock company, or in the public funds; hence, in the plural, equivalent to stocks.
(n.) An engagement between troops in war, whether on land or water; a battle; a fight; as, a general action, a partial action.
(n.) The mechanical contrivance by means of which the impulse of the player's finger is transmitted to the strings of a pianoforte or to the valve of an organ pipe.
Example Sentences:
(1) Power urges the security council to "take the kind of credible, binding action warranted."
(2) The subcellular distribution of sialyltransferase and its product of action, sialic acid, was investigated in the undifferentiated cells of the rat intestinal crypts and compared with the pattern observed in the differentiated cells present in the surface epithelium.
(3) Consensual but rationally weak criteria devised to extract inferences of causality from such results confirm the generic inadequacy of epidemiology in this area, and are unable to provide definitive scientific support to the perceived mandate for public health action.
(4) The following is a brief review of the history, mechanism of action, and potential adverse effects of neuromuscular blockers.
(5) However, the mechanism of the inhibitory action is still somewhat uncertain.
(6) "What has made that worse is the disingenuous way the force has defended their actions.
(7) As prolongation of the action potential by TEA facilitates preferentially the hormone release evoked by low (ineffective) frequencies, it is suggested that a frequency-dependent broadening of action potentials which reportedly occurs on neurosecretory neurones may play an important role in the frequency-dependent facilitation of hormone release from the rat neurohypophysis.
(8) This was unlike the action of the calcium channel blocker, cadmium, which reduced the calcium action potential and the a.h.p.
(9) An initial complex-soma inflection was observed on the rising phase of the action potential of some cells.
(10) Most thyroid hormone actions, however, appear in the perinatal period, and infants with thyroid agenesis appear normal at birth and develop normally with prompt neonatal diagnosis and treatment.
(11) We are pursuing legal action because there are still so many unanswered questions about the viability of Shenhua’s proposed koala plan and it seems at this point the plan does not guarantee the survival of the estimated 262 koalas currently living where Shenhua wants to put its mine,” said Ranclaud.
(12) The evidence suggests that by the age of 15 years many adolescents show a reliable level of competence in metacognitive understanding of decision-making, creative problem-solving, correctness of choice, and commitment to a course of action.
(13) The blockade of H2 receptors is the primary action of these drugs; however, they possess also secondary actions which may represent untoward effects but in some cases may be actually useful (increase in prostaglandin synthesis, inhibition of LTB4 synthesis, etc.)
(14) It is concluded that in the mouse model the ability of buspirone to reduce the aversive response to a brightly illuminated area may reflect an anxiolytic action, that the dorsal raphe nucleus may be an important locus of action, and that the effects of buspirone may reflect an interaction at 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors.
(15) The macrophage-derived product, interleukin 1 (IL 1) is thought to play an important regulatory role in the proliferation of T lymphocytes; however, its mechanism of action is unknown.
(16) If there is a will to use primary Care centres for effective preventive action in the population as a whole, motivation of the professionals involved and organisational changes will be necessary so as not to perpetuate the law of inverse care.
(17) In oleate-labeled particles, besides phosphatidic acid the product of PLD action radioactivity was also detected in diglyceride as a result of resident phosphatidate phosphohydrolase, which hydrolyzed the phosphatidic acid.
(18) Selective removal of endothelium had no effect on BK-induced contraction or the action of the antagonists.
(19) When irradiated circular DNA, previously nicked by T4 endonuclease V, is briefly exposed to elevated temperature, the DAN becomes susceptible to the action of exonuclease V, and pyrimidine dimers are selectively released.
(20) The reproducibility of the killing-curve method suggests that at least two different concentrations should be used and that a decrease in viable counts below 2 log10 after 24 hours does not exclude a synergistic action.
Rubicon
Definition:
(n.) A small river which separated Italy from Cisalpine Gaul, the province alloted to Julius Caesar.
Example Sentences:
(1) The Mail branded the deal "a grim day for all who value freedom" and, like the Times, accused David Cameron of crossing the Rubicon and threatening press freedom for the first time since newspapers were licensed in the 17th century.
(2) He said he accepted the principle of independent regulation, arguing that the current system "is badly broken and it has let down victims" – but insisted that any proposal to underpin a new regulator with a law, as proposed by Leveson, would "cross the Rubicon" of state intervention into press freedom.
(3) On 1 August Palmer told Guardian Australia his senators were firmly against any Medicare co-payment on the basis it “crosses the Rubicon” on access to free healthcare.
(4) The prime minister has said a press law would be "crossing the Rubicon" but it is understood that a "dab of statute" which would underpin a royal charter and ban the privy council from amending any charter would be acceptable to Associated, News International and the Telegraph.
(5) Glasenberg, says one person who knows how much he anguished over the decision to take Glencore public, is well aware that he "has crossed the Rubicon".
(6) He believes the prime minister's main reservation, his "Rubicon", has been addressed.
(7) It is the historian who has decided for his own reasons that Caesar’s crossing of that petty stream, the Rubicon, is a fact of history, whereas the crossing of the Rubicon by millions of other people before or since interests nobody at all.” The speeches we believe to be most decisive can come only from those speeches we have heard about.
(8) He was taken to Govan police station, the base for Operation Rubicon, the inquiry set up to investigate alleged perjury at the trial.
(9) In 1986 he made perhaps his biggest blunder, his infamous "Rubicon" speech.
(10) Tony Yates, a professor of economics at Birmingham University and a former Bank insider, says: “Once they’ve crossed the Rubicon of doing it, what would be to stop the political clamour for using QE to pay for something else?
(11) I have three concerns: First, a change in the law to permit assisted suicide would cross a fundamental legal and ethical Rubicon.
(12) Ehab Badawy claims that Egypt has "crossed the democratic rubicon" in the recent presidential election ( Letters, 3 June ).
(13) iPad Great Little War Game 2 (£1.99) Developer Rubicon Development has won a wide following with its little and big war games.
(14) Palmer said Australia’s health system was much more efficient than the one in the US, and the PUP senators were united in their opposition to any Medicare co-payment on the basis it “crosses the Rubicon” on access to free healthcare.
(15) We will take deep breaths and cross the Rubicon with you, or at least the Firth of Forth.
(16) It may be that [the government has] crossed a Rubicon and decided that [mass] data-gathering exercises are something [it] should try out – but you can't have it under the existing regime."
(17) Diluted soil samples (Rubicon fine sand, Entic Haplorthods [pH 5.9]) were plated on soil extract-glucose agar containing radioactive 65Zn.
(18) We’ve made it into the final and crossed the Rubicon.
(19) He was not, he said, willing to pass that Rubicon .
(20) What caught the headlines was Cameron's call for an in-out referendum on renegotiated terms – apparently a Rubicon.