act on
verb- To act decisively on the basis of information received or deduced. · The policeman decided to act on the tip from his informant.
- To act accordingly to a (usually sublimated) desire or impulse. · He keeps telling me about wanting to make a move, but he hasn't worked up to acting on it yet.
- To take action against something. · World leaders have repeatedly stated that we must act on climate change.
- To affect something. · Different drugs act on different parts of our body in many different ways.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see act, on.
From the library
You will not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your rooms was to close your shutters, and that I have been compelled to ask your permission to leave the house by some less conspicuous exit than the front door.”
Yet perchance tomorrow deception will so act on me, that I shall, on compulsion, consider such a contemptible possession as the utmost happiness.
“But,” said Andrea, “why do you not act on the advice you gave me?
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