1648 S. Rutherford Surv. Spirituall Antichrist ii. lxvii. 172 His non-acting immediatly, must be the only cause of beleevers murthering, whooring, lying.

1675 R. Baxter Catholick Theol. i. xxiv. 131 Here you see a Reprobation that is no Act of God, but a non-acting.

1873 J. P. Lacroix tr. A. Wuttke Christian Ethics I. 148 True morality is not an outward-going activity, but rather a non-acting [Ger. Nichtthun], a restraining of active volition, a dissolving of all particular personal volitionating into the one divine essence.

1942 Ethics 52 485 As soon as one is aware of the possibility of acting, nonacting is not less a choice than acting.

1997 J. Bowker World Relig. 88/3 The great virtue [in Taoism] is active non-acting, or wu-wei.

1783 R. Twining Let. 4 Oct. in Sel. Papers Twining Family (1887) 110 The closet scene was a most capital piece of acting, or rather of non-acting.

1941 W. K. Miner et al. Producing the Play 478 Actors come to lean upon words; costume, make-up, and lighting are further props. There is thus almost every excuse for drifting into a state of non-acting; a few broad strokes and the job is done!

1967 Wall St. Jrnl. 12 Jan. 1/4 All this reality pays off, advertisers say. The nonmodels, whom casting directors call ‘civilians’, also like the trend. They usually get $120 a day for their nonacting, plus fees based on the number of times each commercial is run.

1983 New Republic (Nexis) 10 Oct. 20 I can't imagine Brooks doing anything remotely comparable to Garbo's deathbed scene in Camille. Brooks had powers that could compensate for her non-acting.

1997 B. Brewster & L. Jacobs Theatre to Cinema 108 A highly edited film could more easily support bad pictorial acting, or non-acting, or a more reduced, i.e. less emphatic, style.

1838 F. Haywood tr. I. Kant Critick Pure Reason 348/2 Every commencement of acting presupposes a state of the yet non-acting cause.

1860 J. W. Carlyle Let. Aug. in H. J. Nicoll T. Carlyle (1884) vii. 179 Bricklayers are tearing up flags in the kitchen, to seek ‘the solution’ of a non-acting drain!

1894 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 185 57 If one side of the tongue is being actively protruded..the resulting position of the tongue is a deviation towards the paralyzed side owing to the passive flaccid condition of the non-acting muscles.

1955 E. Mosbacher tr. H. Lüthy France against Herself i. i. 2 We..are..to talk of France..as a thinking or acting, or even non-acting, unit.

1988 Bond Buyer (Nexis) 30 Mar. 1 Mr. Trier recently was appointed as the Treasury's acting legislative counsel and is expected to assume that post on a nonacting basis as soon as department officials finish the necessary paperwork.

1875 Visitor's Guide New Orleans 122 Shakespeare Club... Its roll of non-acting members..gives it a standing as a social club.

1962 V. M. Roberts On Stage ix. 223 Non-acting employees for the stage proper included a copyist..; a stage manager..; and a designer.

1990 Dict. National Biogr. 1981–85 219/1 Channel 4's Tom Keating on Painters..won him the Broadcasting Press Guild award for the best on-screen performance in a non-acting role.