How to Use act out in a Sentence

act out

verb
Definition of act outnext
Synonyms for act outnext
  • Your dismay at your wife’s acting out is also normal and apt.
    — Carolyn Hax, Detroit Free Press, 27 June 2018
  • Encourage your kids to act out their favorite books, movies and TV shows.
    — Chrissie Ferguson, South Florida Parenting, 25 June 2018
  • Ford was acting out of the goodness of his heart, from his basic sense of decency, Rumsfeld argues.
    — Evan Thomas, New York Times, 26 June 2018
  • Some children will internalize their feelings and appear numb; others will respond by acting out.
    — Dylan Gee, Vox, 20 June 2018
  • The Waukegan middle and high school students dropped to the floor to await the next prompt — to act out a broken robot, an angry statue or a famous tap dancer.
    — Emily K. Coleman, Lake County News-Sun, 19 June 2018
  • Each semester our new members are given the opportunity to write and act out a skit, in order to roast the active brothers.
    — refinery29.com, 8 June 2018
  • As a toddler, my son acted out, had trouble with transitions, socializing, and anxiety.
    — Brian Gresko, Longreads, 12 June 2018
  • After no more than three drinks, Smith began acting out of control, jumping on the back of her husband's aunt and doing other out-of-character things.
    — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 27 June 2018
  • Her dancing, too, was highly expressive in sophisticated choreography that didn't act out the songs so much as manifest their themes in physical form.
    — Mikael Wood, latimes.com, 27 May 2018
  • In the first few days after separation, the children are expected to protest by crying and acting out in ways that reflect a desperate effort to secure the return of their parents.
    — Melissa Healy, latimes.com, 20 June 2018
  • When Adam acts out, Drew is often sworn at, derided, manipulated and disrespected.
    — Jeanne Phillips, The Mercury News, 19 Oct. 2024
  • No drum kits or amplifiers clutter the floor, allowing Byrne and his 11-member supporting cast to dance and act out songs on every available inch of real estate.
    — David Lindquist, Indianapolis Star, 10 June 2018
  • Highlighting Warren’s role in the new bill might be enough to turn Trump against it, given his frequent tendency to act out of personal motives rather than firm principle.
    — David Z. Morris, Fortune, 9 June 2018
  • It was later revealed that Boucher hadn’t acted out of any sort of political motivation but because of a long-simmering feud between the two middle-aged men over yard work.
    — Gabriella Paiella, The Cut, 12 June 2018
  • The 6-year-old who acted out on the school bus wasn't alone.
    — Amy Schwabe, Journal Sentinel, 8 May 2024
  • And if there are no nouns, then what is acting out the verbs?
    — George Musser, Scientific American, 25 Aug. 2019
  • Take your rage, and paint/draw/paste/act out/write/sing/film it.
    — The Washington Post, 31 July 2020
  • In the video, the band don breastplates and gold leaf crowns to act out Shakespeare.
    — Audra Heinrichs, Rolling Stone, 21 Mar. 2024
  • The Good News: All that the Lord hopes of his followers is to act out of kindness and love.
    — Elizabeth Berry, Woman's Day, 26 May 2022
  • So if your dog is acting out, start by trying to find the root cause.
    — Alexandra Gekas, Woman's Day, 25 Feb. 2019
  • Hsu had been chosen to act out a fake lemonade ad in front of her school.
    — CNN, 6 Mar. 2023
  • For you as a parent in real life, what were those scenes like to act out?
    — Karen Mizoguchi, PEOPLE.com, 5 Apr. 2022
  • But first, the children act out the story of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.
    — al, 21 Dec. 2022
  • Some embrace the chance to act out while others just want to party.
    — Chris Thilk, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 July 2018
  • The game involves guessing words that are acted out one by one to form a phrase.
    — USA TODAY, 17 July 2023
  • Don’t act out, don’t huff and puff over the indignity of it all — just be busy that day.
    — Amy Dickinson, Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2022
  • Don’t act out, don’t huff and puff over the indignity of it all – just, be busy that day.
    — Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 18 Nov. 2022
  • If Brown acts out, the Patriots can just release him and move on.
    — Ben Volin, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Sep. 2019
  • The series has already asked him to play over 20 years of age ranges and act out one of the most gut-wrenching deathbed scenes of the last decade.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 9 July 2020
  • 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

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'act out.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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