different between act vs discharge

English

Etymology

From Middle English acte, from Old French acte, from Latin ?cta (“register of events”), plural of ?ctum (“decree, law”), from ag? (“put in motion”). Compare German Akte (“file”). Partially displaced deed, from Old English d?d (“act, deed”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ækt/
• (AAVE) IPA^(key): /æk/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

act (countable and uncountable, plural acts)

1. (countable) Something done, a deed.
   • 1798, William Wordsworth, Lines

     That best portion of a good man's life, / His little, nameless, unremembered acts / Of kindness and of love.

2. (obsolete, uncountable) Actuality.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be.

3. (theology) Something done once and for all, as distinguished from a work.
4. (countable) A product of a legislative body, a statute.
5. The process of doing something.

6. (countable) A formal or official record of something done.
7. (countable, drama) A division of a theatrical performance.

8. (countable) A performer or performers in a show.

9. (countable) Any organized activity.
10. (countable) A display of behaviour.
11. A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
12. (countable) A display of behaviour meant to deceive.

    to put on an act

Synonyms

• (something done): deed; see also Thesaurus:action
• (product of a legislative body): statute
• (display of behavior): pretense

Meronyms

• (drama): scene

Holonyms

• (drama): play

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

act (third-person singular simple present acts, present participle acting, simple past and past participle acted)

1. (intransitive) To do something.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To do (something); to perform.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, Purity of Intention

     that we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater than our necessity

   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, Of Industry in General (sermon)

     Industry doth beget by producing good habits, and facility of acting things expedient for us to do.

   • 1782, William Cowper, Expostulation

     Uplifted hands that at convenient times / Could act extortion and the worst of crimes.

3. (intransitive) To perform a theatrical role.

4. (intransitive) Of a play: to be acted out (well or badly).
5. (intransitive) To behave in a certain manner for an indefinite length of time.

6. (copulative) To convey an appearance of being.

7. (intransitive) To do something that causes a change binding on the doer.

8. (intransitive, construed with on or upon) To have an effect (on).

9. (transitive) To play (a role).

10. (transitive) To feign.

    • With acted fear the villain thus pursued.

11. (mathematics, intransitive, construed with on or upon, of a group) To map via a homomorphism to a group of automorphisms (of).

12. (obsolete, transitive) To move to action; to actuate; to animate.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• ATC, CAT, CTA, Cat, TAC, TCA, cat, tac

Middle English

Noun

act

1. Alternative form of acte

Old Irish

Conjunction

act

1. Alternative spelling of acht (“but”)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French acte, from Latin actus.

Noun

act n (plural acte)

1. act, deed, action

Related terms

• ac?iune

See also

• fapt, fapt?
• lucru

Further reading

• act in DEX online - Dic?ionare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak(t)/

Noun

act (plural acts)

1. an act

Verb

act (third-person singular present acts, present participle actin, past actit, past participle actit)

1. act
2. enact
3. decree

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

Welsh

Etymology

From English act.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /akt/

Noun

act f (plural actau)

1. act

Derived terms

• Actau'r Apostolion (“Acts of the Apostles”)
• actio (“to act”)
• actor (“actor”)
• actores (“actress”)

Mutation

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present) , “act”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

English

Etymology

From Middle English dischargen, from Anglo-Norman descharger and Old French deschargier (“to unload”), from Late Latin discarric? (“I unload”), equivalent to dis- +? charge.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (verb) IPA^(key): /d?s?t???d?/
  • (noun) IPA^(key): /?d?st???d?/
• (US)
  • (verb) enPR: d?schärj', IPA^(key): /d?s?t???d?/
  • (noun) enPR: d?s'chärj, IPA^(key): /?d?st???d?/

Verb

discharge (third-person singular simple present discharges, present participle discharging, simple past and past participle discharged)

1. To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 1

     O most dear mistress, / The sun will set before I shall discharge / What I must strive to do.

2. To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to forgive; to clear.
3. To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.
4. To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
5. To expel or let go.
   • January 1, 1878, Herbert Spencer, Ceremonial Government, published in The Fortnightly Review No. 132

     Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.

6. To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
   • Mrs Partridge, upon this, immediately fell into a fury, and discharged the trencher on which she was eating, at the head of poor Jenny […]

7. (electricity) To release (an accumulated charge).
8. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.

   Synonyms: fire, let go, terminate; see also Thesaurus:lay off

   1. (medicine) To release (an inpatient) from hospital.
   2. (military) To release (a member of the armed forces) from service.
9. To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty.

10. To operate (any weapon that fires a projectile, such as a shotgun or sling).

    • discharge his pieces

    • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV

      I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish its prey; but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.

11. (logic) To release (an auxiliary assumption) from the list of assumptions used in arguments, and return to the main argument.
12. To unload a ship or another means of transport.
13. To put forth, or remove, as a charge or burden; to take out, as that with which anything is loaded or filled.

14. To give forth; to emit or send out.

15. To let fly; to give expression to; to utter.

16. (transitive, textiles) To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process.

17. (obsolete, Scotland) To prohibit; to forbid.

Translations

Noun

discharge (countable and uncountable, plural discharges)

1. (medicine, uncountable) Pus or exudate (other than blood) from a wound or orifice, usually due to infection or pathology.
2. The act of accomplishing (an obligation) or repaying a debt etc.; performance.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 1

     Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge.

3. The act of expelling or letting go.
4. The act of firing a projectile, especially from a firearm.

   Synonym: firing

5. The process of unloading something.
6. The process of flowing out.
7. (electricity) The act of releasing an accumulated charge.
8. (medicine) The act of releasing an inpatient from hospital.
9. (military) The act of releasing a member of the armed forces from service.
10. (hydrology) The volume of water transported by a river in a certain amount of time, usually in units of m³/s (cubic meters per second).

Translations