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

(en verb)

To cut, divide or separate into pieces.

(British) To commit (a person, to a hospital, with or without their consent), as for mental health reasons.

* 1998 , Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997 , Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-18388-8, page 45:

Tribunals were set up as watchdogs in cases of compulsory detention (sectioning'). Informal patients, however, could be ' sectioned , and this was often a fear of patients once they were in hospital.

* Lucy Johnstone, Users and Abusers of Psychiatry: A Critical Look at Psychiatric Practice , Second Edition, Routledge (2000), ISBN 978-0-415-21155-0, page xiv:

The doctor then sectioned her, making her an involuntary patient, and had her moved to a secure ward.

* 2006 , Mairi Colme, A Divine Dance of Madness , Chipmunkapublishing, ISBN 978-1-84747-023-2, page 5:

After explaining that for 7 years, from ’88 to ’95, I was permanently sectioned under the Mental Health act, robbed of my freedom, my integrity, my rights, I wrote at the time;- ¶