actionless


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ac·tion

 (ăk′shən)
n.
1. The state or process of acting or doing: The medical team went into action.
2. Something that is done or accomplished; a deed. See Usage Note at act.
3. Organized activity to accomplish an objective: a problem requiring drastic action.
4. The causation of change by the exertion of power or a natural process: the action of waves on a beach; the action of a drug on blood pressure.
5. Habitual or vigorous activity; energy: a woman of action.
6. often actions Behavior or conduct.
7. Law A proceeding brought before a court to obtain relief; a lawsuit.
8.
a. Armed encounter; combat: missing in action.
b. An engagement between troops or ships: fought a rear-guard action.
9. The most important or exciting work or activity in a specific field or area: always heads for where the action is.
10.
a. A movement or a series of movements, as of an actor.
b. Manner of movement: a horse with fine action.
c. The appearance of animation of a figure in painting or sculpture.
11.
a. The series of events and episodes that form the plot of a story or play: The action of the novel takes place over 40 years in the South.
b. A series or number of fast-moving, exciting, or dangerous events, especially in a movie: liked the film because there was so much action.
12.
a. The operating parts of a mechanism.
b. The manner in which such parts operate.
c. The manner in which a musical instrument can be played; playability: a piano with quick action.

ac′tion·less adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

actionless

(ˈækʃənlɪs)
adj
inactive, without action
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
References in periodicals archive ?
And because I'd sat through so many actionless sits, I couldn't believe how well I managed my excitement.
When faced with SUS weaknesses, professionals are truly actionless and frustrated (9,16).
That would be a far better way to get to know them than the repetitious exposition and navel-gazing, actionless minutiae, and constantly shifting points of view.
He suggests that just as statements in the Vedas, though they are "false" (i.e., based on concepts and duality), can remove our delusions and trigger an experience in which the limitations of subject and object disappear and the mind simply rests in the bliss of impersonal awareness, so in the same way literature uses imaginary characters, scenes, and language to trigger an experience in which the limited particularity of the spectator and the character are dissolved and one rests in a state of blissful and actionless awareness, without any subject or object.
The Assembly was reminded about its 2014 resolution about two 165MGD water supply schemes which had remained actionless yet and requested to send the matter to Privilege Committee.
To his credit, American director Christopher Alden did not try to impose action on a virtually actionless work, staging it more as a tableau sequence against a Paul Steinberg backdrop obviously inspired by the paintings of Mark Rothko.
I heard several bulls and had several good encounters, along with a couple of dull, actionless days--pretty typical elk hunting for this area.