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the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action. One wise in council, one in action brave. Pope.

That may be the subject of an action or suit at law; as, to call a man a thief is actionable.

In an actionable manner.

A shareholder in joint-stock company. [Obs.]

Void of action.

Stealing cattle on a large scale. [Obs.]

See Catharsis, below.

separating, or withdrawing, or the state of being withdrawn; withdrawal. A wrongful abstraction of wealth from certain members of the community. J. S. Mill.

Pertaining to abstraction.

An idealist. Emerson.

The act of drying, or the state of growing dry. The arefaction of the earth. Sir M. Hale.

accustomed; habituation. [Obs.] Custom and studies efform the soul like wax, and by assuefaction introduce a nature. Jer. Taylor.

The act or property of attracting; the effect of the power or operation of attraction. Newton.

The central mass of the aster in mitotic cell division; centrosphere.

The act of conferring a benefit. Johnson.

The breech mechanism in breech-loading small arms and certain special guns, as automatic and machine guns; --used frequently in referring to the method by which the movable barrels of breech- loading shotguns are locked, unlocked, or rotated to loading position.

The act of warming or heating; the production of heat in a body by the action of fire, or by communication of heat from other bodies.

The act or process by which chyle is formed from food in animal bodies; chylification, -- a digestive process.

Cineration; reduction to ashes. [Obs.]

Force; compulsion, either in restraining or impelling. Sojth.