1
as in acting out
to behave badly
the two-year-old was acting up in church so much that her dad had to take her outside
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in cutting up
to engage in attention-getting playful or boisterous behavior
you should have seen the boys acting up when they put on their aprons
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of acting up
Johnson, who struggles with a neuroma, swears by her Oofos mules to keep it from acting up.
—
Jennifer Heimlich, SELF, 29 Aug. 2025
Jennifer Heimlich, SELF, 29 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for acting up
Verb
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His brittle mum Heather (a heartbreaking and frustrating Shirley Henderson) is barely holding things together as is, and then John starts, well, acting out?—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
7 Sep. 2025
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Despite their language barrier, Costner did his best to talk to the tribe about buffalo, acting out how the animal would behave.—
Angel Saunders,
People.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Ford is planning on cutting up to 1,000 roles in electric-vehicle production in Germany.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
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Proposition 50 would turn back the clock of progress, cutting up our neighborhoods for political gain and silencing the very voices that fought hardest for fairness.—
Bernadette Suarez,
Oc Register,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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For the latter photo, her back was mostly to the camera, showing off a cheeky white one-piece swimsuit.—
Angel Saunders,
PEOPLE,
16 Sep. 2025
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The bandeau was attached with a lace mesh fabric, and there was a second triangle cutout showing off her abs.—
Hedy Phillips,
People.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Big thanks to Betty Lin-Fisher and Baily Schulz for carrying on in our absence.—
Daniel de Visé,
USA Today,
16 Sep. 2025
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All that carrying on caused the rusty metal trap to cut further into his leg, which caused a terrible infection.—
Charlotte Phillipp,
PEOPLE,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Fischer faces charges of first-degree reckless endangerment, interfering with an officer, reckless driving, disobeying traffic control signals, failure to drive in the proper lane, disobeying the signal of an officer, failure to display plates and engaging police in a pursuit.—
Justin Muszynski,
Hartford Courant,
18 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Gisin hopes that by fooling around with measurements of these more exotic states, physicists will come to better understand the role of measurement in general.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
8 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Acting up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/acting%20up. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
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