Word Meanings - UNDERACTION - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Subordinate action; a minor action incidental or subsidiary to the main story; an episode. The least episodes or underactions . . . are parts necessary or convenient to carry on the main design. Dryden.

Related words: (words related to UNDERACTION)

• MINOR
  Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third. Asia Minor , the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine, or Black Sea, on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south. -- Minor mode , that mode,
• DESIGN
  drawing, dessein a plan or scheme; all, ultimately, from L. designare to designate; de- + signare to mark, mark out, signum mark, sign. See 1. To draw preliminary outline or main features of; to sketch for a pattern or model; to delineate; to trace
• DESIGNATE
  Designated; appointed; chosen. Sir G. Buck.
• STORY-WRITER
  1. One who writes short stories, as for magazines. 2. An historian; a chronicler. "Rathums, the story-writer." 1 Esdr. ii. 17.
• EPISODE
  A separate incident, story, or action, introduced for the purpose of giving a greater variety to the events related; an incidental narrative, or digression, separable from the main subject, but naturally arising from it.
• NECESSARY
  1. Such as must be; impossible to be otherwise; not to be avoided; inevitable. Death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come. Shak. 2. Impossible to be otherwise, or to be dispensed with, without preventing the attainment of a desired result;
• LEAST
  Smallest, either in size or degree; shortest; lowest; most unimportant; as, the least insect; the least mercy; the least space. Note: Least is often used with the, as if a noun. I am the least of the apostles. 1 Cor. xv. 9. At least, or
• ACTION
  Effective motion; also, mechanism; as, the breech action of a gun. (more info) 1. A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of
• CONVENIENTLY
  In a convenient manner, form, or situation; without difficulty.
• STORYBOOK
  A book containing stories, or short narratives, either true or false.
• LEASTWAYS; LEASTWISE
  At least; at all events. At leastways, or At leastwise, at least. Fuller.
• MINORAT
  A custom or right, analogous to borough-English in England, formerly existing in various parts of Europe, and surviving in parts of Germany and Austria, by which certain entailed estates, as a homestead and adjacent land, descend to the youngest
• ACTIONABLE
  That may be the subject of an action or suit at law; as, to call a man a thief is actionable.
• MINORATION
  A diminution. Sir T. Browne.
• DESIGNATOR
  An officer who assigned to each his rank and place in public shows and ceremonies. 2. One who designates.
• DESIGNATIVE
  Serving to designate or indicate; pointing out.
• SUBORDINATE
  1. Placed in a lower order, class, or rank; holding a lower or inferior position. The several kinds and subordinate species of each are easily distinguished. Woodward. 2. Inferior in order, nature, dignity, power, importance, or the like. It was
• MINORATE
  To diminish. Sir T. Browne.
• DESIGNFUL
  Full of design; scheming. -- De*sign"ful*ness, n. Barrow.
• CARRYK
  A carack. Chaucer.
• REACTIONIST
  A reactionary. C. Kingsley.
• INSUBORDINATE
  Not submitting to authority; disobedient; rebellious; mutinous
• MADEFACTION; MADEFICATION
  The act of madefying, or making wet; the state of that which is made wet. Bacon.
• REDACTION
  The act of redacting; work produced by redacting; a digest.
• CHYLIFACTION
  The act or process by which chyle is formed from food in animal bodies; chylification, -- a digestive process.
• FACTION
  One of the divisions or parties of charioteers (distinguished by their colors) in the games of the circus. 2. A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in opposition to the government, or state; -- usually applied to a minority,
• FOREDESIGN
  To plan beforehand; to intend previously. Cheyne.
• DISTRACTION
  1. The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet. 2. That which diverts attention; a diversion. "Domestic distractions." G. Eliot. 3. A diversity of direction; detachment. His power went out in
• REFACTION
  Recompense; atonemet; retribution. Howell.
• COLLIQUEFACTION
  A melting together; the reduction of different bodies into one mass by fusion. The incorporation of metals by simple colliquefaction. Bacon.
• DIRECT ACTION
  See BELOW
• UNDERACTION
  Subordinate action; a minor action incidental or subsidiary to the main story; an episode. The least episodes or underactions . . . are parts necessary or convenient to carry on the main design. Dryden.