1
general::
Phrase(s): act out
to behave badly. (Usually used to describe young people.) • Your son has been acting out in the classroom, and his teacher feels that professional intervention is desirable., Phrase(s): act something out
1. to perform in real life a role that one has imagined in a fantasy. • When I was onstage, I was really acting an old fantasy out. • I acted out an old fantasy onstage. 2. to convert one’s bad feelings into action rather than words. • Don’t act your aggressions out on me! • She acted out her aggression. 3. to demonstrate or communicate something through gestures or action rather than words. • Act your request out, if you can’t say it. • She had a sore throat and had to act out her request.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
1. Perform or portray something or someone, as in As she read to the class, the teacher had each child act out a different character in the story. [c. 1600] 2. Express unconscious feelings or impulses through one's behavior, without being aware of it. For example, She acted out her anger at her father by screaming at her husband. This meaning comes from 20th-century psychological theory and usually (but not always) refers to negative or hostile impulses and emotions. The term is sometimes used without an object to mean "misbehave" or "behave disruptively," as in The child is acting out in class. [First half of 1900s] In both usages, out means ‘‘openly" or "publicly."
American Heritage Idioms