Verb

(en verb)

(management) To act on a request etc, in order to put it into effect.

* {{quote-book, year=2004

, publisher=Pearson Education , author=Ros Jay, Richard Templar , title=Fast Thinking Manager's Manual , edition=Second edition , chapter=Fast thinking: project , section=Fast Thinking Leader citation , isbn=9780273681052 , page=276 , passage=‘Here, give me the minutes of Monday’s meeting. I’ll action your points for you while you get on and sort out the open day.’}}

* {{quote-book, year=2005

, publisher=Routledge , author=Fritz Liebreich , title=Britain's Navel and Political Reaction to the Illegal Immigration of Jews to Palestine, 1945-1948 , chapter=The physical confrontation: interception and diversion policies in theory and practice citation , isbn=9780714656373 , page=196 , passage=Violent reactions from the Jewish authorities were expected and difficulties of actioning the new guidelines were foreseen.}}

* {{quote-book, year=2007

, publisher=The Stationery Office , editor= , author=Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman , title=Tax Credits: Getting it wrong? 5th report session 2006-2007 , chapter=Case study: 11257 , section=Chapter 2: Changes and developments since June 2005 citation , isbn=9780102951172 , page=26 , passage=HMRC said that one reason they had not actioned her appeal was because she had said in her appeal form ‘I am appealing against the overpayment for childcare for 2003-04, 2004-05’, thus implying she was disputing her ‘overpayment’.}}

(transitive, chiefly, archaic) To initiate a legal action against someone.

* {{quote-book, year=1856

, publisher=Stringer & Townsend , author=Thomas Chandler Haliburton , title=The Attaché: or Sam Slick in England , section=Chapter XLVII: The Horse Stealer; or All Trades Have Tricks But Our Own , edition=New Revised Edition citation , page=270 , passage=‘I have no business to settle with you—arrest me, Sir, at your peril and I’ll action you in law for false imprisonment.’}}

* {{quote-book, year=1844

, year_published= , publisher=T. C. Newby , author=Robert Mackenzie Daniel , title=The Grave Digger: A novel by the author of The Scottish Heiress , volume=I , section=Chapter IX: How the Grave-differ entertained a lady citation , pages=189-190 , passage=“Scrip threatened me at first with an action for slander—he spoke of actions to the wrong man though—action! no, no no. I should have actioned him—ha! ha! [...]”}}

* {{quote-book, year=1871

, year_published=2002 , publisher=Oxford University Press US , author=Michael Shermer , quotee=(Alfred Russell Wallace) , title=In Darwin’s shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russell Wallace , section=Chapter 10. Heretic Personality citation , isbn=9780195148305 , page=261 , passage=I have actioned him for Libel, but he won’t plead, and says he will make himself bankrupt & won’t pay a penny.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1996

, publisher=Boydell & Brewer , author=Darryl Mark Ogier , title=Reformation and Society in Guernsey , chapter=Discipline: Enforcement , section=Part Two: The Calvinist Regime citation , isbn=9780851156033 , page=148 , passage=In 1589 the Court went so far as to effect a reconciliation between Michel le Petevin and his wife after she actioned him for ill treatment and adultery with their chambermaid.}}

Verb

(es)

To come or go near, in place or time; to draw nigh; to advance nearer.

* 1769 , Oxford Standard text, , xi, 20,

And if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall?

* 1769 , Oxford Standard text, , x, 25,

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching .

(figuratively) To draw near, in a figurative sense; to make advances; to approximate.

as he approaches to the character of the ablest statesman.

* 1839 , , A Tour in Sweden in 1838 , page 371,

Without these incentives to industry the Norwegian would be like the Laplander, without industry and civilisation ; and the nearer he approaches' to the ''beau idéal'' of those political economists — to the state of being without a taste for these foreign and expensive luxuries — the nearer he ' approaches to the condition of the Laplander in the comforts and enjoyments of life.

* 1898 , , The Works , Volume 11, 2006, Elibron Classics Replica Edition, page 205,

In this respect, the only books which approach to its excellence are Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe.

To come near to in place, time, character or value; to draw nearer to.

He was an admirable poet, and thought even to have approached Homer. -- .

"Would counsel please approach the bench?" asked the judge.

to approach the city

He approached the age of manhood.

Don't approach that house.

* 1831 , , Volume 1, The American Redstart,

When one approaches the nest of this species, the male exhibits the greatest anxiety respecting its safety, passes and repasses, fluttering and snapping its bill within a few feet, as if determined to repel the intruder.

* 1867 , , Chapter 53: And Last,

Removing with him and the old housekeeper to within a mile of the parsonage-house, where his dear friends resided, he gratified the only remaining wish of Oliver's warm and earnest heart, and thus linked together a little society, whose condition approached as nearly to one of perfect happiness as can ever be known in this changing world.

* 1898 , , Book 1, Chapter 1: The Eve of the War,

Its physical condition is still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial region the midday temperature barely approaches that of our coldest winter.

* 1911 [1904], , Chapter III,

If a variable $v$ takes on successively a series of values that approach' nearer and nearer to a constant value $l$ in such a manner that $,\; v\; -\; l,$^{[To be read ''the numerical value of the difference between'' $v$ ''and'' $l$]} becomes and remains less than any assigned arbitrarily small positive quantity, then $v$ is said to '''''approach the limit'' $l$, or to ''converge to the limit $l$. Symbolically this is written

*:: limit $v\; =\; l$, or, $v\; \backslash dot=\; l$.

*::: Usage note: In discussing convergence in mathematical analysis, modern rigorous formulations avoid using the terms approach'' and ''converge . These terms may, however, serve as a form of handwave when rigour is not required.

To make an attempt at (solving a problem or making a policy).

* 1922 , , Chapter II,

And it was with decision that he approached the problem of his wrecked shop.

To speak to, as to make a request or ask a question.

* 1988 Dinesh Vaghela, Publisher's Note'', in , Dinesh Publications, [http://www.well.com/user/jct/],

"Why bother publishing my conversations. It has not helped you, and it is not going to help anybody else", said U.G. when I approached him with the idea of publishing excerpts from his conversations with the constant stream of people who go to visit him.

(military) To take approaches to.

To bring near; to cause to draw near.

(Boyle)