Englishaction
noun
1 there can be no excuse for their actions:
deed, act, activity, move, gesture, undertaking, exploit, manoeuvre, achievement, accomplishment, venture, enterprise, endeavour, effort, exertion;
work, handiwork, doing, creation, performance, behaviour, conduct;
reaction, response.
2 they recognized the need for local community action:
steps, measures, activity, movement, work, working, effort, exertion, operation.
3 he was a man of action:
energy, vitality, vigour, forcefulness, drive, push, ambition, motivation, initiative, spirit, liveliness, vim, pep;
activity;
informal get-up-and-go, punch, zip, pizzazz.
4 they observed the action of hormones on the pancreas:
effect, influence, power, working, work;
result, consequence.
5 he missed all the action while he was away:
excitement, activity, bustle;
happenings, occurrences, proceedings, events, incidents, episodes, eventualities, chain of events;
informal goings-on.
6 he saw action in the Second World War | twenty-nine men died in the action:
fighting, hostilities, battle, conflict, armed conflict, combat, warfare, war, bloodshed;
engagement, clash, encounter, confrontation, skirmish, affray.
7 he won his action but the damages awarded were nominal:
lawsuit, legal action, suit, suit at law, case, cause, prosecution, litigation, legal dispute, legal contest;
proceedings, legal proceedings, judicial proceedings.
□ in action□ out of action□ take action
the group's Utah power station is out of action at the moment:
not working, not in working order, not functioning, broken, broken-down, out of order, out of service, out of commission, acting up, unserviceable, faulty, defective, non-functional, in disrepair;
down;
informal conked out, bust, (gone) kaput, gone phut, on the blink, gone haywire, shot.
▷antonyms operative, working.
action Oxford Dictionary of English