a.; also 4–5 actuel. [a. Fr. actuel, ad. late L. actuāl-is (in philos. and theol. writers), of or pertaining to action; f. actu-s acting; see ACT and -AL. Subseq. assimilated to the L. spelling.]
† 1. Of or pertaining to acts; exhibited in deeds; practical, active. Obs.
c. 1315. Shoreham, 107. Thys senne cometh nauȝt of thy ken … Tho seggeth thys leredemen And clypyeth hyt actuel.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Persones T., 283. Thus is synne accomplisid … and thanne is the synne cleped actuel.
1534. More, On the Passion, Wks. 1557, 1284. Original syn without actual adioyned thereto dampned the kynde of man.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Politie (1617), 47. Actuall, that holynesse, which afterwards beautifieth all the parts and actions of our life.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. i. 13. In this slumbry agitation, besides her walking, and other actuall performances, what (at any time) haue you heard her say?
1647. H. More, Song of the Soul, II. ii. II. xxxviii. So when the present actuall centrall life of sense and motion is gone.
† 2. Abounding in action, active, energetic. Obs.
1470–85. Malory, Morte d’Arth., I. xvi. (1816), I. 30. ‘I wol wel,’ said Arthur, ‘for I see your dedes full actual.’
3. Existing in act or fact; really acted or acting; carried out; real;—opposed to potential, possible, virtual, theoretical, ideal. Formerly often absol. in pl. = actual qualities, actualities.
1541. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Cyrurg., D iij b. Whiche cauteres are the surest, the actualles, or the potencyalles? Answere. The actualles, bycause ye action of fyre is moste simple.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xii. 178. And thinkest thou … that his [God’s] potentials … are not stronger than thine actuals?
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, III. xxxviii. 244. By comparison with their own actuall miseries.
1656. Bramhall, Replic., iv. 160. With the Romanists themselves I distinguish between habituall and actuall Jurisdiction. Habituall Jurisdiction is derived only by Ordination. Actuall Jurisdiction is a right to exercise that habit, arising from the lawfull application of the matter or subject.
1769. Junius Lett., xxxv. 155. The natives of Scotland are not in actual rebellion.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. viii. 661. The nominal revenue was but a portion of the actual proceeds.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Revol., I. I. II. iii. 31. Great truly is the Actual; is the Thing that has rescued itself from bottomless deeps of theory and possibility, and stands there as a definite indisputable Fact.
1853. F. W. Robertson, Serm., III. vii. 90. There is every difference between the ideal and the actual—between what a man aims to be and what he is.
1870. Tyndall, Heat, v. § 154, 131. It may be called actual energy in antithesis to possible.
4. In action or existence at the time; present, current.
1642. R. Carpenter, Experience, II. vii. 162. If a man finde his wife in the actuall commission of Adultery, he may kill both his wife, and the Adulterer.
1790. Burke, Fr. Revol., 78. If this be your actual situation, compared to the situation to which you were called.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. N.-Cap Country, 132. Never constructed as receptacle … for him their actual lord.
1880. Geikie, Phys. Geog., I. 3, 21. No telescope has yet detected any actual volcanic eruption going on in the moon.
Mod. In the actual position of affairs in Egypt.
