activityn.
/akˈtɪvᵻti/, /əkˈtɪvᵻti/, U.S. /ækˈtɪvᵻdi/ 1.
a. The state of being actively occupied; brisk or vigorous action; busyness, liveliness, vigour.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [noun] > briskness or activeness
businessa1398
activitya1425
activeness1513
pertness1575
whirry1622
smartness1644
brisknessa1655
alertness1816
a1425 (?a1400) Cloud of Unknowing (Harl. 674) (1944) 3 (MED) [Þ]ouȝ al þei stonde in actyvete bi outward forme of leuyng, neuerþeles [etc.].
a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome f. 182v, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue at Mast(e The fyre that is of maist actiuite to endure.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 193 Activyte, quickenesse, actiuite (Fr.).
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Gen. xlvii. B Yf thou knowest that there be men of actiuyte amonge them, make them rulers of my catell [amonge & them in text].
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iii. ii. 55 If she call your actiuity in question. View more context for this quotation
1657 T. Jordan Fancy's Festivals iii. i. sig. C Frol. I cannot stop the volubility of your tongue, I can stay the celebrity of your heels. Friend. But not the activity of my hands, if you abuse me thus.
a1704 T. Brown Table-talk in Wks. (1707) I. ii. 42 Laziness, and want of Activity.
1775 E. Burke Speech Resol. for Concil. Colonies 13 Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France.
1826 W. Scott Woodstock I. ii. 53 The latter stepped back with activity.
1882 Daily News 5 Mar. There is not quite so much activity in the iron market.
1925 L. O'Flaherty Informer xiii. 212 Dart Flynn..was designed by nature as a revolutionary..terrifying the contented ones into activity.
1968 J. G. Vermandel Murder Most Fair x. 67 It was a vast amount of floor area, abustle with people and activity, yet there didn't seem to be any appreciable noise.
2008 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 26 May a13/1 All the activity left some local residents wondering whether Mr. McCain's ranch..would become a western White House if he were to be elected president.
b. Physical exercise, gymnastics, athletics; (also) a gymnastic exercise. Now only in feats of activity.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > gymnastics > exercise > [noun]
playeOE
stirringa1400
laboura1530
exercisea1533
activity1542
motion1568
gymnastic1598
gymnastics1652
capriccio1665
grind1857
physical drill1873
ekker1891
physical jerks1917
daily dozen1918
workout1923
sexercise1942
1542 T. Elyot Bibliotheca at Hippias He ran, wrastelyd, and dyd other feates of actiuitie, that all men beholdyng hym, were therwith abashed.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Master whyche teacheth actiuitie, Gymnastes.
c1595 J. Norden Speculum Brit.: Cornwall (1728) 29 Especially Wrastling and Hurling, sharpe and seuere actiuities.
?a1640 J. Day & H. Chettle Blind-beggar (1659) iv. sig. Gv He means Tumbling, and feats of Activity.
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 51. ⁋3 A great deal of good Company of us were this Day to see or rather to hear an artful Person do several Feats of Activity.
1796 Tribune 3 286 They had their Gymnasia..where their youth were trained to strength, to activity, to wisdom and to virtue.
1845 Dublin Univ. Mag. Apr. 440/2 Harlequin resumed his occupation; now throwing out a drollery, now exhibiting a feat of activity.
1869 A. Trollope He knew he was Right I. iii. 17 Certain poles and sticks and parallel bars with which feats of activity might be practised.
1915 O. G. Sonneck Early Opera in Amer. ii. ii. 136 Mr. and Mrs. Placide again saw their way clear to fill the gaps between their feats of activity with pantomines [sic], comedies and operas.
2001 P. Fletcher World Musics in Context (2004) xvi. 564 The gathering of logs into great piles afforded opportunity for mutual competition in feats of activity, strength, and the telling of jokes.
2.
a. The state of being active; the quality or condition of being an agent or of performing an action or operation; the exertion of energy, force, or influence.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > [noun]
workOE
operationa1393
workmanshipc1400
actionc1405
act?a1425
workinga1425
activityc1485
executiona1530
play1548
workfulness1570
inworking1587
acting1605
agency1606
operancea1625
transaction1663
operancyc1811
outworking1846
mediacy1854
functioning1856
the world > action or operation > doing > [noun] > condition of being active
activityc1485
operative1608
inactuation1662
c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Law of Armys (2005) 111 The actiuitee or passibilitee of mannis gouernaunce.
1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Cor. xii. f. xxxiiiv There is of al men but one god, of whome the power and actiuitie of al thinges..haue theyr begynnynges.
a1550 (c1477) T. Norton Ordinal of Alchemy (Bodl. e Mus.) f. 20v Heat and colde be qualites actiue, moysture and drynes be qualites passive..nothinge is full wrought but by heat & colde; netherles the passyues haue some actyvytee.
1648 E. Reynolds Medit. Last Supper p. xi All manner of activity requiring a contact and immediateness between the agents and the subject.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. Pref. sig. C The supreme Being (who is Activity it self).
1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 50 What is the Sphere of Activity of Cold?
1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. v. 95 The Saw is designed to cut only in its progress forwards; Man having in that activity more strength.
1764 T. Reid Inq. Human Mind ii. §10, 115 No man would attribute great activity to the paper I write upon.
1777 J. Priestley Disquis. Matter & Spirit xii. 150 We have no experience of..primary activity, in any respect.
1876 J. B. Mozley Serm. preached Univ. of Oxf. iii. 49 Activity is naturally at first sight our one test of faith.
1879 W. Thomson & P. G. Tait Treat. Nat. Philos. (new ed.) I: Pt. i. §263 If the Activity of an agent be measured by its amount and its velocity conjointly; and if, similarly, the Counter-activity of the resistance be measured by the velocities of its several parts and their several amounts conjointly, whether these arise from friction, cohesion, weight, or acceleration;—Activity and Counter-activity, in all combinations of machines, will be equal and opposite.
1916 J. Joyce Portrait of Artist iii. 139 It is a fire..working not of its own activity but as an instrument of divine vengeance.
1935 A. H. G. Palmer & K. S. Snell Mechanics vii. 133 British engineers usually measure activity in horse-power,..where—1 H.P. = 550g ft. pdl./sec.
1995 N. Negroponte Being Digital (1996) xvi. 199 Until the computer, the technology for teaching was limited to audiovisual devices and distance learning by television, which simply amplified the activity of teachers and the passivity of children.
2003 S. Greenfield Tomorrow's People (2004) ii. 20 Throughout the night, sensors continue to measure your blood pressure and heart rate, as well as..the electrical activity of your brain.
b. Chemistry. The degree to which a substance, esp. an enzyme, exhibits its characteristic property.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > chemical properties > [noun] > extent of characteristic property exhibition
activity1780
1780 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 70 p. x Much has been written by authors concerning the activity of these American poisons... The very smell of them was thought to be noxious.
1832 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 22 295 Piperine owes its activity to the resinous oil which is associated..with it; and in proportion as it contains this or is deprived of it, is its activity increased or diminished.
1881 Proc. Royal Soc. 32 146 Probably the most accurate mode of estimating the activity of a diastasic solution is to ascertain the amount of sugar produced when a given quantity of the solution is made to act on a given volume of a standard starch mucilage.
1938 Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) II. 317/1 The outstanding property of active charcoals is their adsorptive activity towards vapours, gases, and dissolved substances.
1976 Nature 16 Sept. 251/1 The enzyme had a specific activity of about 17 μmol ATP hydrolysed per mg protein min−1 at 37° C.
2004 New Scientist 14 Aug. 37/1 The two proteins..limit the activity of an enzyme called mTOR, which controls how fast a cell makes proteins and how fast it grows.
c. Physics. = radioactivity n.1 1; the disintegration rate of a radioactive substance. Also (as a count noun): a distinct type or source of radioactivity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactivity > [noun] > radiation emitted
activity1898
radioactivity1899
radiation1958
1898 Science 7 Oct. 474/1 It [sc. polonium] is..thrown down with the bismuth sulfid and partly separated by heating in a vacuum to 700° C., the sublimate obtained having 400 times the activity of uranium.
1903 E. Rutherford in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 5 446 The excited activity from radium decays much faster than that produced from thorium.
1926 R. W. Lawson tr. G. von Hevesy & F. A. Paneth Man. Radioactivity xxiv. 174 The α-activity of uranium in equilibrium with all its transformation products is 4·73 times as large as that of the uranium itself.
1935 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 149 542 Both activities of this element (periods 9 seconds and 40 seconds) are not sensitive to hydrogenated substances.
1958 W. K. Mansfield Elem. Nucl. Physics iii. 21 The unit of activity is the curie, which is the rate at which 1 g of radium decays.
1997 M. Perutz in N.Y. Rev. Bks. 20 Feb. 40/1 They detected traces of a radioactivity which behaved as if it came from elements chemically similar to radium, though its activity halved in hours rather than years.
d. Physical Chemistry. A thermodynamic property which is a measure of the effective concentration of a substance in a system (and equal to the actual concentration in an ideal system), and is an exponential function of chemical potential and reciprocal temperature.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > physical chemistry > thermochemistry > [noun] > activity
activity1907
1907 G. N. Lewis in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 43 262 We shall find it desirable to introduce besides the fugacity..another quantity which has the dimensions of concentration. This quantity we will call the activity.
1948 S. Glasstone Textbk. Physical Chem. (ed. 2) ix. 687 The simplest method for evaluating the activity of a solvent is by determination of vapour pressure.
1978 P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. 20 As the concentration increases positive cations tend to congregate in the vicinity of the negative anions, and vice versa... Instead of talking in terms of the concentration of ions it then becomes more significant to talk in terms of their effective concentration, or activity.
2008 Food Control 19 1166/1 The activity of hydroxonium is a key in describing thermodynamic and kinetic properties of processes occurring in aqueous solutions.
3.
a. Something which a person, animal, or group chooses to do; an occupation, a pursuit. Frequently in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > [noun]
busyingeOE
busyOE
busyship?c1225
busyhead1340
occupation?1387
occupyinga1400
businessc1405
vacationc1450
employing1459
employment1542
entertainment1551
activity1570
trade1591
negotiation1628
engagement1661
employ1675
busyness1809
occupancy1826
carry-on1917
the world > action or operation > doing > a proceeding > [noun] > proceedings or doings
workingOE
workOE
workOE
doingsa1387
practica1475
gearc1475
proceeding1524
practice1547
activity1570
courses1592
acting1596
motion1667
ongoings1673
energies1747
deed1788
movement1803
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 185/1 The king..enterteined hym in his court accordingly. And euery daye more and more perceiued his actiuities.
a1602 W. Perkins Combat Christ & Diuell (1606) 42/2 The Diuell couenanteth to be seruiceable vnto them in procuring them honour, riches, pleasures, or great renowme for some strange actiuities.
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 37. ⁋2 The most accomplish'd Man in this Kingdom for all Gentleman-like Activities and Accomplishments.
1796 W. Cole Contradiction ix. 228 The comfortable activities of rural life.
1855 Happy Home & Parlor Mag. 1 May 292 They have met there a kind minister who has sent them back to life's activities with a purpose re-energized for toil.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda III. v. xxxvii. 128 Still more he wanted to escape standing as a critic outside the activities of men.
1927 Amer. Mercury Feb. 132/1 The book contains..tales of the nefarious activities of German spies.
1944 C. A. Naether Bk. of Pigeon (ed. 3) v. 53 Each of the three compartments has twenty-five individual, ‘open-box’ perches, which appear only on one side-wall in order to minimize the birds' flying activities during confinement.
1970 J. Campbell World of Ponies 127 (caption) Australian Pony Clubbers are always sure of good weather for their outdoor activities.
2003 B. Bryson Short Hist. Nearly Everything (2004) xv. 290 Late one night, three young summer employees were engaging in an illicit activity known as ‘hot-potting’.
b. An operation, an active force. Frequently in plural.
ΚΠ
1638 W. Rawley tr. F. Bacon Hist. Nat. & Exper. Life & Death 433 The Spirit hath from..the Flame, his Noble and Potent Motions and Activities.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 307 Some..to salve the effect have recurred unto the influence of the starres, making their activities Nationall. View more context for this quotation
1733 A. Baxter Enq. Nature Human Soul iv. 134 All efficiency is ascribed by us to natural activities and powers of a sluggish substance.
1856 10th Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 147 The nitrogen of the atmosphere is a mere diluent of the oxygen... It stands in the way of the latter, and by its physical presence hinders its activities.
1869 T. H. Huxley in Scient. Opinion 28 Apr. 486/1 The study of the activities of the living being is called its physiology.
1953 E. Kruisinga & P. A. Erades Eng. Gram. (ed. 8) I. viii. 257 Verbs of a terminative character, that is such as express the final stage of an activity.
1995 Sci. News 12 Aug. 102/3 The LCOs spurred the tobacco cells to grow and divide, an activity that usually requires the hormones auxin and cytokinin.
c. Originally U.S. A project, task, or exercise, esp. one set for educational purposes.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > study > subject or object of study > [noun] > project or activity
discipline1785
project1916
activity1923
1923 E. Collings Exper. with Project Curriculum vii. 325 Curriculum Principles... A series of concrete and practical activities directed toward some foreseen end.
1967 E. B. Jenkinson What is Lang.? 191 For such an activity, the teacher needs to explain..what each group must do, and he must also give the groups enough time to compile the dictionary.
1980 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 49 457 The book contains activities for lessons in reading, listening, speaking, writing, science, math, social studies, etc.
2002 G. Kroehnert Games Trainers play Indoors (2005) xii. 31 Here is an activity designed so that everyone gets to know each other's name.
d. activity of daily living n. (also activity for daily living) originally and chiefly U.S. (chiefly in plural) any of a number of routine tasks and functions a person must be able to perform in order to maintain independence; abbreviated ADL.A distinction is often made between basic activities, such as feeding oneself, personal hygiene, and continence, and those related to living independently within a community, such as shopping, managing money, and household chores (sometimes called instrumental activities of daily living, and abbreviated IADL).
ΚΠ
1947 N.Y. Times 15 June 51/4 With the use of a cineplastic artificial arm on his left stump, he is able to perform the activities of daily living with only a minimum of assistance.
1979 P. Mittler People not Patients viii. 167 An active regime of training in activities for daily living is introduced, concentrating on purchase and preparation of meals, budgeting, shopping, saving, [etc.].
1986 F. G. Caro in K. A. Pillemer & R. S. Wolf Elder Abuse xii. 284 Among those over 85, 43.6 percent needed help with at least one activity of daily living.
1988 A. M. Rivlin et al. Caring for Disabled Elderly 260 Chronically disabled persons often require long-term care if they need assistance in the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), such as shopping, cooking, or housework, in order to maintain themselves.
1995 Which? Aug. 34/3 These policies pay out if you are unable to carry out two or three of five ‘activities of daily living’ (ADLs): these are washing, dressing, feeding yourself, moving around and continence.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a.
(a) With first element in singular form.
ΚΠ
1624 E. Bolton Nero Caesar 61 The antient Greeke Gymnasium was diuided into three chiefe spaces, or actiuitie-yards.
1652 C. B. Stapylton in tr. Herodian Imperiall Hist. iv. 29 An Activity Court.
1905 W. James Ess. Radical Empiricism (1912) vi. 185 An activity-process is the form of a whole ‘field of consciousness’.
1940 R. S. Woodworth Psychol. (ed. 12) xi. 364 In one type of experiment, energy output is measured by use of the activity cage, which is like a squirrel cage... A mechanical counter shows the number of times the animal's running has turned the wheel round.
1960 C. W. Harris Encycl. Educ. Research 852/1 The project and activity methods were commonly used..in the twenties and thirties..as a general approach to teaching.
1989 M. A. Selzer et al. Working with Person with Schizophrenia 124 The staff..decided to allow the patient to choose whether or not she would join the role-playing activity after receiving recommendations from the activity coordinator.
2009 Observer (Nexis) 2 Aug. 10 One supposed benefit of these activity vacations is closer contact with local people.
(b)
activity book n.
ΚΠ
1911 Publishers' Weekly 25 Feb. 1032/2 Because activity books are always prime favorites, ‘The Jumbo Paint and Drawing Book’ will quickly make its place.
2003 I. Butler et al. Divorcing Children App. 221 Through the activity book, we explained that we wanted to know a little about the important people in a child's life... Space was provided either to write a list of these people or to ‘draw’ a family map.
activity camp n.
ΚΠ
1933 Commonweal 24 Nov. 102/2 The pupil who is the product of an activity camp, in which every half-hour is planned, naturally tends to be bored and almost helpless to amuse himself when left alone.
2005 R. Barker et al. BTEC Introd. Sport & Leisure iv. 95 During the summer holidays I also worked as an assistant activities co-ordinator on an activity camp for children.
activity centre n.
ΚΠ
1923 San Antonio (Texas) Express 11 Mar. a4/3 An orchestra has been installed in the ‘Gray Room’ of Stephen's Hall, California University's activity center.
2007 Trail Feb. 10/2 Activity centres and mountain guides don't make lots of money.
activity day n.
ΚΠ
1930 Nashua (Iowa) Reporter 23 Apr. The latter part of our Rural School Activity Day will be held, presumably at New Hampton.
2000 D. Bliss Best Man Best Speech 21 There may be three evenings to coordinate, two activity days to arrange..and 20 rowdy stags who need marshalling.
activity holiday n.
ΚΠ
1968 Times 7 May (Scotl. Suppl.) p. iv/4 By far the largest number of visitors come up from England, the young to sample all kinds of activity holidays.
2000 A. Orbaşli Tourists in Hist. Towns ii. 55 Travellers on activity holidays, such as trekking or mountaineering for example, frequently allow time for cultural visits in the Kathmandu valley area.
activity level n.
ΚΠ
1919 J. B. Watson Psychol. xi. 400 Activity Level—Would you characterize the subject as being lazy, industrious, or active in manual work?
2009 Irish News (Nexis) 13 Oct. 29 Companies that reported a decline in activity levels blamed reduced sales volumes and weak economic conditions.
activity pack n.
ΚΠ
1952 Great Bend (Kansas) Daily Tribune 12 June 3/2 A committee..fixed an activity pack including all kinds of play equipment to Bobby Deid and Paul Friedly who are in the hospital.
2000 J. Parsons Ready for Take-off! (2001) 31 On most long flights, all young children receive a free activity pack which contains things like books, pens and games.
activity programme n.
ΚΠ
1920 Ogden (Utah) Examiner 31 Mar. 9/4 An activity program for the year will also be outlined.
2009 A. Douglas Partnership Working iv. 99 She spent half a day every week in a bell-ringing session with people with severe learning disabilities, which was built into the activity programmes of three local day centres.
activity room n.
ΚΠ
1922 Michigan Alumnus 1 June 941/1 The building will be sufficient to handle all indoor Varsity and freshman athletics... The main activity room will be 300 feet by 160 feet.
2002 V. Regnier Design for Assisted Living xxxi. 263/1 In an activity room, the light level may need to be high for crafts and card games but low for watching TV, videos, or projected images.
activity sheet n.
ΚΠ
1939 Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. 26 401 Graded reading lists for particular subjects,..and activity sheets in history, government, sociology, and economics.
2003 A. J. Singer et al. Teaching to Learn vii. 192 When I design an activity sheet for a lesson, every reading passage, illustration, or chart is followed by three or four questions.
activity weekend n.
ΚΠ
1948 Farmer's Advocate (Charles Town, W. Va.) 9 Sept. 1/6 The Youth Fellowship of the Charles Town Methodist Church is making plans for their second annual ‘Activity week-end’.
2000 B. Clegg Training Plus 100 The company had arranged an activity weekend with assault courses and abseiling to improve teamwork.
b.
(a) With first element in plural. Frequently in the titles of jobs or positions, as activities director, activities coordinator, etc.
ΚΠ
1911 Barnard (N.Y.) 13 Dec. 1/1 The Committee on Undergraduate Interests—a new name for the former Students' Activities Committee.
1918 A. P. Stokes Educ. Plans for Amer. Army Abroad v. 42 Only one..was devoting his main time to educational work, the others being ‘Activities Secretaries’ especially interested in arranging for entertainments.
1949 R. Hancock Fabulous Boulevard 241 This is the Immanuel Presbyterian [church] whose budget of $170,000 a year supports five ministers and twenty full-time secretaries, activities directors, office clerks and custodians.
1966 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 66 2089 (advt.) A full-time activities coordinator to consult about things to do in your off-duty hours.
1973 Times 16 Oct. 2/2 He is activities organizer of the group.
1984 Amer. Motorcyclist Nov. 12/3 Maintaining the activities calendar of the greatest motorcycle organizations in the world.
2008 Care Homes Guide S.E. Eng. 78/1 An activities coordinator organises walks along the seafront and various games.
(b)
activities centre n.
ΚΠ
1923 Atlanta Constit. 23 Dec. k4/2 The Y club federation of young businesswomen..is organized at the activities center of the association.
2002 K. Windle & W. Dąbrowski tr. I. Iredyński Sel. One-act Plays for Radio 21 Our little ‘cultural centre’? We have a library, a reading room, an activities centre and a small lecture hall.
activities programme n.
ΚΠ
1921 Chicago Sunday Tribune 11 Dec. ix. 6/1 Scoutcraft—the activities program of scouting.
2008 Care Home Guide S.W. Eng. 86/1 A comprehensive activities programme provides much enjoyment with bus outings proving particularly popular with residents.
activities room n.
ΚΠ
1918 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 10 Apr. 12/5 The upper floor will contain girls' activities room, office, library, dance hall, reading and writing rooms.
2009 B. Westbrook Beyond Deceit i. 8 I went to the activities room, set up the bingo equipment, and gave the hospital volunteers the go-ahead to start the game.
C2.
activity coefficient n. Physical Chemistry the ratio of the activity (sense 2d) of a substance to its concentration (a measure of deviation from ideal behaviour).
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > physical chemistry > activity coefficient > [noun]
activity coefficient1911
1911 A. A. Noyes & W. C. Bray in Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 33 1646 For each substance in solution, as the concentration is decreased, the ratio of activity to concentration, the activity coefficient (A/C) approaches a constant value, which in aqueous solutions may for convenience be assumed to be unity at infinite dilution.
1978 P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. xii. 357 Once the standard electrode potential of a cell is known, the activity coefficient can be determined for any ionic strength simply by measuring the e.m.f. of the cell.
2008 Jrnl. Alloys & Compounds 462 345/2 Those crystalline phases and chemical short-range order significantly decrease the activity coefficient of zirconium.
activity ratio n. Business and Accounting any of a number of ratios used to measure the efficiency of resource management.
ΚΠ
1932 Accounting Rev. 7 20/2 Refinements have been introduced such as..the scaling of standard overhead costs for production centers, according to activity ratios.
1974 Jrnl. Finance 29 811 Activity Ratio is the ratio of gross products to the total debt.... This indicator measures how effectively the firm uses its resources in relation to its financial position.
2006 J. Booker Financial Planning Fund. 25 Like all activity ratios, the asset turnover ratio combines an income statement item (Net Sales) and compares it to a balance sheet item (Total Assets).
activity sampling n. (in work study) a form of sampling in which a large number of observations are made of a group of machines or workers over a period of time in order to predict what percentage of the total time is occupied by any one activity.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > study of work > [noun] > specific studies or techniques
time study1904
motion study1911
work study1921
acid test ratio1925
network analysis1930
methods study1932
methods engineering1939
methods–time measurement1948
activity sampling1956
rhochrematics1960
1949 Amer. Psychologist 4 306/2 (heading) The sampling method of activity analysis.]
1956 OR 7 121 The method of time-study devised by L. H. C. Tippett originally called ‘Snap Reading’, and now ‘Ratio Delay’ or ‘Activity Sampling’.
1979 Steel Times Internat. Sept. 9/2 Activity sampling could also be used to study the movement of rail traffic.
2004 N. Monin Managem. Theory v. 134 The empirical research..included..activity sampling and structured observation across a range of organizational activities and managerial roles.
activity series n. Chemistry a list of chemical elements (esp. metals) arranged in order of reactivity; spec. = electrochemical series n. at electrochemical adj. Compounds.Reactivity may be measured in various ways, such as by ability to react with water and acids, or to displace ions of another element in solution, or by standard electrode potential (as in the electrochemical series). Although lists determined by different methods are broadly the same, there are some notable differences (e.g. in the relative positions of potassium and lithium).
ΚΠ
1916 A. Smith Gen. Chem. for Colleges (ed. 2) 544 For inactive materials, a plate of copper or of some metal below copper in the activity series may be used.
1978 G. C. Hill & J. S. Holman Chem. in Context ii. 13 Metals higher in the activity (electrochemical) series can lose electrons more easily than the less reactive metals lower down in the activity series.
2003 C. M. Roebuck Excel HSC Chem. (new ed.) i. 24/1 Using the activity series we can predict whether reactions will occur.
activity wheel n. = exercise wheel n. at exercise n. Additions.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > [noun] > wheel for measuring activity of small mammals
exercise wheel1902
activity wheel1929
the world > animals > zoology > [noun] > equipment
actograph1920
activity wheel1929
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > wheel > [noun] > tread
tread-wheelc1573
wheel1623
tympanum1889
activity wheel1929
1929 Science 1 Feb. 132/2 Apparatus is also available for the study of the relative activity of wild animals in activity wheels.
1981 New Scientist 13 Aug. 407/1 An activity wheel seems to be an obligatory feature of any complete hamster cage.
2008 Behavioural Processes 78 470/2 Rats acquire aversion to a taste substance consumed before running in activity wheels as a form of Pavlovian conditioning.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1425- to be at the horn
- to be at the plough
- to be at the receiving end
- to be at the school of placebo
- to be at the steerage
- to be at the wash
- to be at under one's last shift(s
- to be at war
- to be at words
- to be at, to take til =to any person's or persons' fay
- to be at, to take til any person's or persons' fay
- to be atragedizing
- to be au fait in or at
- to be awake to
- to be aware
- to be aware of
- to be aware that
- to be away
- to be away for slates
- to be back on one's feet
- to be bad kokum
- to be bad luck
- to be bad news
- to be badly served
- to be bagged