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.
If buy signals are confirmed, we will act on them, but we would prefer to see a positive change in the construct of volatility derivatives before doing anything too aggressive on the long side.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 26, 2026
"Targeting the brain with drugs is tricky because they act on the entire brain and not a selected region such as the parafacial nucleus," says Paton.
From Science Daily • Mar. 22, 2026
"Manipulated satellite imagery, like other forms of misinformation, can have real-world impacts when people act on the information they come across without verifying its authenticity," Africk said.
From Barron's • Mar. 9, 2026
It aims to skip a gantlet of state-by-state fights and act on behalf of all the roughly 600 dealers in Volkswagen’s U.S. network.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 7, 2026
Such “making” is a two-phase affair: first, artisans make a plan, then they act on it.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
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.
