as in to raise hell
to behave badly
because his parents spent so much time with his chronically ill sister, the boy resorted to acting out in order to get attention
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Examples of act out in a Sentence
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Recent Examples on the Web
White House officials sometimes refer to them during classified tabletop exercises acting out how the government would respond in an overwhelming disaster.
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Brian Bennett, TIME, 15 Oct. 2024
The show featured puppets acting out myths in conversation with pianist Eric Lewis, a.k.a. ELEW.
—Julie Tremaine, People.com, 10 Oct. 2024
One of these cold bodies was behind the shopping center bombing that opened the season — not an ideologically motivated act of terrorism, but a deadly form of acting out by a son against his father.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 9 Oct. 2024
Players customize their characters’ abilities and personalities to either participate in a roleplaying session, act out scenes with NPCs to further the story, or engage in combat with terrifying monsters like bugbears or gloomstalkers.
—Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Ars Technica, 30 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for act out 
Brian Bennett, TIME, 15 Oct. 2024
The show featured puppets acting out myths in conversation with pianist Eric Lewis, a.k.a. ELEW.
—Julie Tremaine, People.com, 10 Oct. 2024
One of these cold bodies was behind the shopping center bombing that opened the season — not an ideologically motivated act of terrorism, but a deadly form of acting out by a son against his father.
—Alison Herman, Variety, 9 Oct. 2024
Players customize their characters’ abilities and personalities to either participate in a roleplaying session, act out scenes with NPCs to further the story, or engage in combat with terrifying monsters like bugbears or gloomstalkers.
—Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Ars Technica, 30 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for act out
Recent Examples of Synonyms for act out
Verb
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Yet videos circulating on social media suggest that some police and military units may already be disobeying orders to repress the mass protests across the country.Alex González Ormerod, TIME, 6 Aug. 2024
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But Sue, having taken over Elisabeth’s now-available TV job and savoring her own drive to stardom, disobeys the program, leaving her creator comatose on the floor of a closet.Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 20 Sep. 2024
Verb
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Both Badenoch and her main rival for the leadership Robert Jenrick are carrying on long-standing pledges to bring overall migration numbers down.Frey Lindsay, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2024
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He’s also found comfort in carrying on Nate’s legacy.Brian Brant, People.com, 27 Oct. 2024
Verb
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But in 1954, Brando was at the height of his talents, bringing American acting up to and past to the British standard for the first time, with a realism achieved through that delicate balancing of gender qualities that pretty much no one before or after mastered in the same way.Allen Farmelo, Robb Report, 23 July 2024
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Babies remain the last vestige of scoundrels in sequel terms, so naturally the movie introduces a son to Gru (voiced as usual by Steve Carell) and Lucy (Kristen Wiig) who, semi-amusingly, can’t stand his dad, screaming or acting up in some other way every time Gru picks him up.Brian Lowry, CNN, 2 July 2024
Verb
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Game developers rebelled and threatened to find alternative game engines.Kif Leswing, CNBC, 17 Oct. 2024
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After a while, the women decided to call themselves the New Barbizon, a tribute to the 19th-century French painters who rebelled against the claustrophobic conventions of the French Academy and painted landscapes en plein air.Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 5 Oct. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near act out
Cite this Entry
“Act out.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/act%20out. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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