Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌækt ˈaʊ̯t/Category:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ACTOUT

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#ACTOUT

Verb

act out (third-person singular simple present acts out, present participle acting out, simple past and past participle acted out)Category:English lemmas#ACTOUTCategory:English verbs#ACTOUTCategory:English phrasal verbs#ACTOUTCategory:English phrasal verbs formed with %22out%22#ACTOUTCategory:English multiword terms#ACTOUTCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ACTOUTCategory:Pages with entries#ACT%20OUTCategory:Pages with 1 entry#ACT%20OUT

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#ACTOUT) To perform something specific.

   Synonym: enact

   • 1987, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students:

     What was acted out in the American and French Revolutions had been thought out beforehand in the writings of Locke and Rousseau, the scenarists for the drama of modern politics.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ACTOUT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   1. (idiomaticCategory:English idioms#ACTOUT) To perform a scene from a play, a charade or an exercise.

      Despite already being aware, he will be acting out the pretence of a surprise.

   2. (idiomaticCategory:English idioms#ACTOUT) To perform a fantasy in reality.

      I've wanted to do this for so long, but I never thought I could act it out.Category:English terms with usage examples#ACTOUT

2. (ambitransitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#ACTOUTCategory:English intransitive verbs#ACTOUT) To express internal feelings or thoughts.
   1. To express one's feelings through disruptive actions.

      I know you're angry, but you can't act out and break dishes like that.

   2. To express ideas or desires through actions rather than words.

      When her jaw was wired shut, she had acted out what she needed.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see act,‎ out.

   She's a street performer, so she acts out on Ninth Street.Category:English terms with usage examples#ACTOUT

Anagrams

• outact