act on
Britishverb
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to regulate one's behaviour in accordance with (advice, information, etc)
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to have an effect on (illness, a part of the body, etc)
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Also, act upon . Conduct oneself in accordance with or as a result of information or another action, as in I will act on my lawyer's advice , or The manager refused to act upon the hotel guest's complaints . [c. 1800]
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Influence or affect, as in The baby's fussing acted on the sitter's nerves . [c. 1800]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Between wanting to appease fans, ensuring his players stay fit, wanting to score early and aiming to stay solid at the back, the Liverpool boss has a difficult balancing act on his hands.
From BBC
In living cells, DNA regularly twists and tangles as enzymes act on it, and both knots and plectonemes play important roles in genome organization and stability.
From Science Daily
Most standard hair loss treatments are designed to act on a single biological pathway.
From Science Daily
From this revised framework, he introduces a "correction tensor" -- a mathematical tool that accounts for drag and resistance acting on particles of any shape, including spheres and thin discs.
From Science Daily
He offers a useful outline of digital transformation: digitization, integration, analysis and finally acting on insights to change behavior.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
