Dictionary

act out en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˌækt ˈaʊ̯t/

Meanings

1. (transitive) To perform something specific.
   • What was acted out in the American and French Revolutions had been thought out beforehand in the writings of Locke and Rousseau, the scenarists for the drama of modern politics. 1987, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students:
2. (idiomatic, transitive) To perform something specific. ▸ To perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise.
   • Despite already being aware, he will be acting out the pretence of a surprise.
3. (idiomatic, transitive) To perform something specific. ▸ To perform a fantasy in reality.
   • I've wanted to do this for so long, but I never thought I could act it out.
4. (ambitransitive) To express internal feelings or thoughts. ▸ To express one's feelings through disruptive actions.
   • I know you're angry, but you can't act out and break dishes like that.
5. (ambitransitive) To express internal feelings or thoughts. ▸ To express ideas or desires through actions rather than words.
   • When her jaw was wired shut, she had acted out what she needed.
6. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see act, out.
   • She's a street performer, so she acts out on Ninth Street.

Forms

Synonyms

enact · enact · enact

Translations (18)

fr péter les plombs (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · pl odgrywać (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · ru выёбываться (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · ru кочевря́житься (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · de ausleben (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · sv utåtagerande (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · ru разыгра́ть (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · ru разы́грывать (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · ru предста́вить (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · pl odegrać (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · ru выде́лываться (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · tl magwala (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · ru дура́читься (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · fr jouer (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · uk розігрувати (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · sv utagera (to express one's feelings through disruptive actions) · sh odigrati (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise) · ru представля́ть (to perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise)