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
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of acting up
Its general sensibility seems more Superstore than The Office, down to the interstitial montages of customers acting up in the perpetually overcrowded waiting room.
—
Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 13 Oct. 2025
Sturm said his back started acting up after the team’s first practice.
—Michael Russo, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
Mature parents do not slap their children across the face for acting up.
—Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 25 Sep. 2025
Then the engine started acting up, which would have cost up to $10,000 to fix.
—Shannon Pettypiece, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025
Johnson, who struggles with a neuroma, swears by her Oofos mules to keep it from acting up.
—Jennifer Heimlich, SELF, 29 Aug. 2025
Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 13 Oct. 2025
Sturm said his back started acting up after the team’s first practice.
—Michael Russo, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025
Mature parents do not slap their children across the face for acting up.
—Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 25 Sep. 2025
Then the engine started acting up, which would have cost up to $10,000 to fix.
—Shannon Pettypiece, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025
Johnson, who struggles with a neuroma, swears by her Oofos mules to keep it from acting up.
—Jennifer Heimlich, SELF, 29 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for acting up
Verb
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Family described Wilks as an only son who was acting out of his character, which is normally soft-spoken and well-mannered.—
David Clarey,
jsonline.com,
10 Oct. 2025
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Some cases even involve disgruntled family members acting out of greed.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
8 Oct. 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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The video, shared on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), captures the robot showing off its Kung Fu moves on the red carpet in a playful face-off with the popular actor and musician.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
7 Oct. 2025
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For many years, Alex has been a tremendous unofficial brand ambassador for Nevada, showing off the incredible climbing available in his home state.—
Ethan Shanfeld,
Variety,
7 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The City of Portland’s official account also weighed in, posting that while national media painted a grim picture, daily life was carrying on as usual.—
Billal Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Sep. 2025
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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
Verb
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The next day, Alex begs Mia to put her on TMS to talk about the deep fake, but Mia won’t, because that would be directly disobeying Stella and Celine’s order for Alex to keep quiet.—
Kimberly Roots,
TVLine,
24 Sep. 2025
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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 15 Oct. 2025.
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