man of action
English
Noun
man of action (plural men of action)
- (set phrase) One who acts or reacts boldly, without hesitation, and often without forethought, especially in situations which are adventurous or dangerous.
- Synonym: doer
- 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 8, in The White Company (fiction):
- "I have heard that the Scots are good men of war," said Hordle John. "For axemen and for spearmen I have not seen their match," the archer answered. […] "And the French?" asked Alleyne, to whom the archer's light gossip had all the relish that the words of the man of action have for the recluse.
- 1909, O. Henry, Roads of Destiny:
- The third was a man of action, a combatant, a bold and impatient executive, breathing fire and steel.
- 1942 June 1, “Heroes: Jimmy Did It”, in TIME, archived from the original on 2022 June 28:
- The world found out last week who led the daring, destructive noonday air raid on Japan last month[:] […] pugnacious Brigadier General James Harold Doolittle, 45, speed flyer, engineer, scholar and man of action.
- 2017 December 1, Charles McGrath, “Patrick Leigh Fermor: A Life in Letters”, in New York Times (book review), archived from the original on 2017 December 3:
- Patrick Leigh Fermor […] was a man of letters but also, like his hero Byron, a man of action—a war hero and a restless adventurer, who even swam the Hellespont when he was 69.
Translations
Translations
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Further reading
- “man of action”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.