office, maintenance, exercise, work, swing, play; interworking†,
interaction; procurement.
causation &c 153; instrumentality &c 631; influence &c 175; action
&c (voluntary) 680; modus operandi &c 627.
quickening power, maintaining power, sustaining power; home
stroke.
V. be in action &c adj.; operate, work; act, act upon; perform, play,
support, sustain, strain, maintain, take effect, quicken, strike.
come play, come bring into operation; have play, have free play;
bring to bear upon.
Adj. operative, efficient, efficacious, practical, effectual.
at work, on foot; acting &c (doing) 680; in operation, in force,
in action, in play, in exercise; acted upon, wrought upon.
Adv. by the agency of, &c n.; through &c (instrumentality) 631; by
means of &c 632.
Phr. I myself must mix with action lest I wither by despair [Tennyson].