ACT UPON

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does act upon mean? 

• ACT UPON (verb)
  The verb ACT UPON has 1 sense:

1. have and exert influence or effect

  Familiarity information: ACT UPON used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACT UPON (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Have and exert influence or effect

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

act upon; influence; work

Context example:

She worked on her friends to support the political candidate

Hypernyms (to "act upon" is one way to...):

affect; bear on; bear upon; impact; touch; touch on (have an effect upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "act upon"):

prejudice; prepossess (influence (somebody's) opinion in advance)

form; imprint (establish or impress firmly in the mind)

militate (have force or influence; bring about an effect or change)

manipulate; pull strings; pull wires (influence or control shrewdly or deviously)

color; colour (modify or bias)

swing; swing over (influence decisively)

blackjack; blackmail; pressure (exert pressure on someone through threats)

carry; persuade; sway (win approval or support for)

get at (influence by corruption)

fix (influence an event or its outcome by illegal means)

dominate (be in control)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I am responsible for them to myself, I act upon them, and I say no more about them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And yet—and yet—well, we have some suggestive facts to act upon.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They are very important—and sorry I am that you cannot feel them sufficiently to act upon them.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Sir Thomas was preparing to act upon this letter, without communicating its contents to any creature at Mansfield, when it was followed by another, sent express from the same friend, to break to him the almost desperate situation in which affairs then stood with the young people.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

So far, then, we have all we may act upon; and let me tell you that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own so unhappy experience.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

With you, it is not, How is such a one likely to be influenced, What is the inducement most likely to act upon such a person's feelings, age, situation, and probable habits of life considered—but, How should I be influenced, What would be my inducement in acting so and so?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Now that we had the clue to his action, each of us could cast back and remember some sinister act upon the part of the half-breed—his constant desire to know our plans, his arrest outside our tent when he was over-hearing them, the furtive looks of hatred which from time to time one or other of us had surprised.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Think over Mother's preachment, act upon it if it seems good, and God bless you all.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)