What's the difference between action and vagary?

Action


Definition:

  • (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.

Vagary


Definition:

  • (n.) A wandering or strolling.
  • (n.) Hence, a wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Dictated by underlying physicochemical constraints, deceived at times by the lulling tones of the siren entropy, and constantly vulnerable to the vagaries of other more pervasive forms of biological networking and information transfer encoded in the genes of virus and invading microorganisms, protein biorecognition in higher life forms, and particularly in mammals, represents the finely tuned molecular avenues for the genome to transfer its information to the next generation.
  • (2) Psychiatry is criticized for imprecise diagnosis, conceptual vagaries, jargon, therapeutic impotence and class bias.
  • (3) The issue of generic equivalence of topical steroids is discussed, with particular emphasis on the vagaries of the vasoconstriction assay.
  • (4) During the past 5-year period from 1986 to 1991, a total of 54 patients received living-related renal allograft and has been managed with vagaries of cyclosporin A (CYA) immunosuppressive regimen.
  • (5) Tsakalotos believes the anti-austerity government speaks for the growing numbers across Europe who, subjected to the brutal vagaries of the market, feel excluded from decision-making.
  • (6) To attempt less would allow this country's health care system to go down any road the vagaries of our political process take it.
  • (7) "You should look at it as a hedge against the vagaries."
  • (8) When employed in the direct imaging of chemiluminescent blots, the charge-coupled device can provide equal or better sensitivity than that obtained by indirect methods using film, with the additional advantages of wide dynamic range and freedom from the vagaries of film processing.
  • (9) It was ever thus for the Kurds, their destiny as a people shaped less by their own struggles than by the vagaries of regional and international politics, particularly the great Middle Eastern upheavals they periodically produce.
  • (10) It must be conceded, however, that with the vagaries of human nature there is always likely to be greater morbidity from patients with hypothyroidism failing to take their medication regularly, than from failure by the medical attendant to make minor adjustments to the dose of thyroxine.
  • (11) When I play Minecraft with Zac he gets to explain to me the vagaries and complexities of his saved kingdoms – the traps he has built, the hidden boltholes beneath looming mountains, the crops he has planted, the eggs he has nurtured, the places he goes, the things he sees.
  • (12) The vagaries of clinical staging associated with stage A disease, as well as the previously documented progression on long-term followup (8 to 10 years) in younger (60 years old or less) patients with stage A1 prostate cancer make radical prostatectomy with its limited morbidity an acceptable treatment choice.
  • (13) The response has been to force the vagaries of clinical judgment into the programmatic algorithm.
  • (14) The major cause of discrepent results with periodic cultures was attributed to vagaries in sampling.
  • (15) Combine that with having to work two jobs, make his own lunch and rely on the vagaries of public transport, and he gets three hours' sleep a night.
  • (16) Future pensioners will also suffer – as millions of employees have shifted into "defined contribution" pension plans – dependent on the vagaries of the stock market.
  • (17) The vagaries of events, people, and places leading to the scientific review are described.
  • (18) This report outlines the experience of one center in establishing a group therapy program, discussing the "readiness" of the center, reservations of the governing board, qualifications and number of group leaders, composition of the group, time-place-duration of meetings, "open" versus "closed" structure, vagaries of obtaining participants, integration with the 24-hour telephone crisis service, problems of confidentiality, and dealing with the suicide of a group member.
  • (19) In this setting the importance of the condition lies in the vagaries of its presentation and the fact that it is eminently treatable, usually by a combination of chemotherapy and surgery.
  • (20) The difficulty in articulating a clear response to Brexit, for example, stems from the absence of common instincts on the best approach to immigration, free trade, markets, and on protecting people from the economic vagaries of globalisation without retreating into bitter rejection of the modern world.