behave 'behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself' act 'behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself' do 'behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself'
behave officiate act masquerade pose function rank serve qualify
act 'FN: to behave in a certain way.' misbehave 'COD: behave badly' act up 'COD: to behave badly.' behave 'COD: act or conduct oneself in a specified way'
The dog acts ferocious, but he is really afraid of people What makes her do this way? Don't behave like a fool You should act like an adult
Examples from VerbNet
They serve a restricted role on the bench. Dina masqueraded as a lawyer. Dina acted like a cretin. He had served in financial planning positions.
Examples from SemCor
Now, you no_doubt regard the preceding as pap; you 're tooling_around full of gage in your hot_rods, gorging yourselves on pizza and playing pinball in the taverns and generally behaving like Ubermenschen. Now, apparently happier under new managers, Mays and Mantle, the perfect players, are behaving as though they 're going_to pass those previous peaks. It now means ominous, as when one speaks of a funny sound in the motor; disturbing, as when one says that a friend is acting funny; and frightening, as when a wife tells the police that it is funny, but her husband has been home for two days and nights''. In a small way this is illustrated by the nineteenth century novelist who argued for the powerful influence of literature as a teacher of society and who illustrated this with the way a girl learned to meet her lover, how to behave, how to think about this new experience, how to exercise restraint. And yet we obviously also believe that the avoidance of the disaster depends in some obscure or at_least uncertain way on the details of how we behave. Usually she marked the few who did thank_you, you did get that kind much in a place like this: and she played a little game with herself, seeing how downright rude she could act to the others, before they 'd take offense, threaten to call the manager. If Rose_Mallory 's killer acted this way, catching_up_with him was going_to be a cinch. The sooner you act like an angel the quicker you 'll feel angelic. This, he was sure, was the way they would act; laughing_at a dying man, laughing as a man was beaten to death. To prevent the manager from deliberately controlling himself only during the sessions, they were rather lengthy( about twenty minutes), the situations were imperfectly described to the manager so that he would not know what to expect, new antagonists were brought on the scene unexpectedly , and the antagonists were instructed to deliberately behave in such ways as to upset the manager and get him to operate in a manner for which he had been previously criticized. He said that from his experience of two years with Gen._Clay in West_Berlin administration, that`` Russia respects our show of strength, but that presently we 're not acting as we should and must''. Two other people in_time shared Mijbil 's love:`` it remained around us three that his orb revolved when he was not away in his own imponderable world of wave and water; we were his Trinity, and he behaved towards us with a mixture of trust and abuse, passion and irritation. A state of parasympathetic`` tuning'' of the hypothalamus induced experimentally causes an increase in the parasympathetic reactivity this structure to direct and reflexly induced stimuli, but leads also to an autonomic reversal: a stimulus acting sympathetically under control_conditions elicits in this state of tuning a parasympathetic response! Another patient, a paranoid woman, for many months infuriated me but the ward personnel and her patients by arrogantly behaving as though she owned the whole building, as though she were the only person in it whose needs were to be met. `` Everyone knew it, but he sort_of acted like he did care who knew it- even after them notes came, even after he 'd heard about Lewis, even after he 'd been shot at a couple o' times hisself''! If this is the case, one would expect that the various procedures just mentioned which alter the hypothalamic balance would influence emotional_state and behavior but that emotion itself would act likewise. However, it determined that neither this factor, nor`` the fact that all concerned in high executive posts in both companies acted honorably and fairly, each in the honest conviction that his actions were in the best interests of his own company and without any design to overreach anyone, including du_Pont 's competitors'', 353_U._S._,_at_607, outweighed the Government 's claim for relief. Long before 1815 the Christian conscience was leading some to declare slavery wrong and to act accordingly. `` But this simply requires that they behave in_accordance_with the dictates of their own natures, and respect yours in_turn. Indeed, as already noted, the Court proceeded on the assumption that the executives involved in the dealings between du_Pont and General_Motors acted`` honorably and fairly'' and exercised their judgment only to serve what they deemed the best interests of their own companies. Foods, which long had been considered`` recession resistant'' but hardly dynamic stocks, have been acting like growth_stocks, going_to higher price-earnings ratios. For the dignity, the influence, and the power of the legislative branch of our Government- it is a privilege for us to do honor to this great man who represents not alone his own district but all the people of our country. I had no idea of_what subjects one discussed when alone with a girl, or how one behaved: For the purposes of setting the product price, the industry behaves as a single entity. In both cases the stubborn fact remains: liberalism gave_birth to two brilliant apostates, both legitimate offspring of its loins, and when brought to the test, it behaved shabbily. I remember standing in a corner, watching Jessica act the hostess, serving soft_drinks to her guests. He behaved publicly with a cocky, swaggering truculence that offended their vulpine Latin minds, and behaved towards them personally with an unimpressed insolence that enraged them beneath their blandness. This behavior on her part subsided only after I had come to see the uncomfortably close similarity between, on_the_one_hand, her arranging the ventilation of the common living_room to her own liking, or turning the television off or on without the wishes of the others, and on_the_other_hand, my own coming stolidly into her room despite her persistent and vociferous objections, bringing my big easy_chair with me, usually shutting the windows of her room which she preferred to keep in a very cold state, and plunking myself down in my chair- in_short, behaving as if I owned her room. These cut-down plants will bud and blossom in time and will behave just as they did in early spring. Jubal could reconstruct the crime from the way the girls behaved because patterns kept shifting- ABC vs D, then BCD vs A&&& or AB vs CD, or AD vs CB, through all ways that four women can gang_up on each other. `` We the people of the Confederate States, each state acting in its sovereign and independent character, in_order_to form a permanent federal_government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity- invoking the favor and the guidance of Almighty_God- do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate_States_of_America''. `` Since the war I have seen the way the Germans have behaved and I think, Holy_Mother, we have behaved like this for hundreds of years. How can the United_States act? Thornburg added in a lower voice but Andy overheard,`` They act more like a jury than an audience''. `` Would you advise us to act the same way? Substitute approved objects for forbidden ones and keep telling him how he is to act.