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Act of God   /ækt əv gɑd/   Listen
noun
Act  n.  
1.
That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a performance; a deed. "That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love." Hence, in specific uses:
(a)
The result of public deliberation; the decision or determination of a legislative body, council, court of justice, etc.; a decree, edit, law, judgment, resolve, award; as, an act of Parliament, or of Congress.
(b)
A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has been done.
(c)
A performance of part of a play; one of the principal divisions of a play or dramatic work in which a certain definite part of the action is completed.
(d)
A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
2.
A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence. (Obs.) "The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be."
3.
Process of doing; action. In act, in the very doing; on the point of (doing). "In act to shoot." "This woman was taken... in the very act."
Act of attainder. (Law) See Attainder.
Act of bankruptcy (Law), an act of a debtor which renders him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt.
Act of faith. (Ch. Hist.) See Auto-da-Fe.
Act of God (Law), an inevitable accident; such extraordinary interruption of the usual course of events as is not to be looked for in advance, and against which ordinary prudence could not guard.
Act of grace, an expression often used to designate an act declaring pardon or amnesty to numerous offenders, as at the beginning of a new reign.
Act of indemnity, a statute passed for the protection of those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them to penalties.
Act in pais, a thing done out of court (anciently, in the country), and not a matter of record.
Synonyms: See Action.


God  n.  
1.
A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol. "He maketh a god, and worshipeth it." "The race of Israel... bowing lowly down To bestial gods."
2.
The Supreme Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the Sovereign of the universe; Jehovah. "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
3.
A person or thing deified and honored as the chief good; an object of supreme regard. "Whose god is their belly."
4.
Figuratively applied to one who wields great or despotic power. (R.)
Act of God. (Law) See under Act.
Gallery gods, the occupants of the highest and cheapest gallery of a theater. (Colloq.)
God's acre, God's field, a burial place; a churchyard. See under Acre.
God's house.
(a)
An almshouse. (Obs.)
(b)
A church.
God's penny, earnest penny. (Obs.)
God's Sunday, Easter.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Act of god" Quotes from Famous Books



... matter of pardon. We must not make it a cause of our remission, either efficient or meritorious. We must not think that it hath any hand in appeasing the wrath of God, or in satisfying justice. Pardon must always be an act of God's free grace, unmerited at our hands, and procured alone through the merits of Christ. We must not put repentance in Christ's room and place, nor ascribe any imperfection unto his merits, as if they needed ...
— Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life • John Brown (of Wamphray)
... Barnes, likewise drawling. "I'll take that up after a while. I'm in charge here. If you go over there quietly to that other house it may look like an act of courtesy. If you don't—it might be called an act of God. Come, hurry—I can't talk ...
— The Sagebrusher - A Story of the West • Emerson Hough
... when, being alone, he sent for me, and received me in the most nattering manner, ordering me as usual to sit in his presence. After the usual compliments, I informed his Excellence that I had been much mortified and distressed, that the act of God, in depriving me of the use of my eyes a few days before his Excellence left Wady Halfa, had prevented me from accompanying his victorious march, and participating in the exploits of his troops; so that I had not arrived till there was nothing left to do. His Excellence ...
— A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar • George Bethune English
... crops, and a carpenter, a caulker, a gunner, and a cooper. Before the day was out he was already figuring up the profit that would arise out of his misfortune of the day before; and he decided that it was the act of God which had cast his ship away in order that this settlement should be founded. He hoped that the settlers would have a ton of gold ready for him when he came back from Castile, so that, as he had said in the glittering camp ...
— Christopher Columbus, Complete • Filson Young
... to instil in you the belief that I lost to-day, at half past three in the afternoon, the key to my cubicle. While distributing rations to the soldiers I dropped it. I see in this loss the act of God. ...
— The Human Drift • Jack London


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