enact
/ɪˈnakt
/ /ɛˈnakt/verb [with object]
1Make (a bill or other proposal) law: legislation was enacted to attract international companies...
- Remember, there has been no significant piece of reformist legislation enacted into law for nearly 30 years.
- Rather, Parliament was enacting legislation in which a number of classes of persons have significant interests.
- In the United States, several states have already enacted genetic privacy laws.
Synonyms
make law, pass, approve, ratify, validate, sanction, authorize, accept, give the seal of approval to;
order, decree, ordain, legislate, legalize, rule;
impose, lay down, implement, bring into effect, bring to bear, put into practice
informal give the go-ahead to, give the green light to, give the thumbs up to, OK, give the OK to
2Put into practice (an idea or suggestion): the pressure group’s aim was to see the proposals enacted...
- The French Revolution was an attempt to enact his ideas.
- Because real people formulate and enact political ideas, it is often easy to locate the supposed evil of a given idea in its human agent.
- The National Security Adviser joined the President at the ranch to discuss enacting recommendations that could be implemented immediately by executive order.
3Act out (a role or play) on stage: Mystery Plays were staged and enacted by members of the guilds...
- When the children performed, enacting the various plays on stage, their disability was hardly on their mind.
- The baddie roles are enacted by Rob and Budd, professional stage actors from Hollywood.
- Damien Matthews enacts the role of the actor in the play and Herford himself plays the part of the lawyer.
Synonyms
act out, act, perform, play, appear in, stage, mount, put on, present, do;
represent
3.1 (be enacted) Take place: walkers stopped to watch, aware that some tragedy was being enacted...
- What terrible tragedies have been enacted over the centuries in this battle between the weak and timid Fly and the cruel and bloodthirsty Spider!
- As if that wasn't enough, the drama was enacted against a background of domestic trauma.
Derivatives
enactable
- What we are really looking for with interpreting statutes is ‘enactable preferences.’
enaction
- The Constitution forbids the enaction of laws contrary to Islam, it does not mandate the passage of laws demanded by Islam.
- While still working on the enaction of last year's academic program changes, this year the faculty is beginning an initiative to renew the curriculum.
- The work combines Latin and English liturgical texts and medieval poetry, with a dramatic enaction of the Passion story.
enactive
- Although the metaphor of an ocean with many shores is helpful to illustrate the variety of spiritual realities, it is ultimately inadequate to convey the participatory and enactive nature of spiritual knowing.
- These writing results confirmed the sequential advantages of engaging in observational learning before engaging in enactive learning experiences.
- Further, enactive mastery, or the direct experience of completing tasks and overcoming obstacles, particularly in the early stages of career development, is positively related to self-efficacy.
enactor
- Soldani replaced Bernini's heavily draped, reclining female figure with the beautiful nude body of the lifeless Christ and added the angels who tenderly cradle him, as enactors of feeling.
- The two unlikely and show-stealing turns come in Kris Kristofferson's haunted enactor of justice, and Keira Knightley's burned out piece of emotionally orphaned wreckage.
- He appeared in a 1930 production of Shakespeare's Othello, eventually being recognized as the definitive enactor of the tragic Moor.
Origin
Late Middle English (formerly also as inact): from en-1, in-2, + act, suggested by medieval Latin inactare, inactitare.