interact

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   act together or towards others or with others

   We should interact more with our colleagues.

2. 2
   verb

   To act upon each other.

   The way staff interact with each other during breaks can play an important role in the workplace.

3. 3
   noun

   A short act or piece between others, as in a play; a break between acts.

   1912, William Archer, London: Chapman & Hall, Chapter 8, pp. 108-109, […] the flight of time is best indicated by an interact. When the curtain is down, the action on the stage remains, as it were, in suspense. The audience lets its attention revert to the affairs of real life; and it is quite willing, when the mimic world is once more revealed, to suppose that any reasonable space of time has elapsed […]

4. 4
   noun

   Intermediate employment or time.

   1750, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Letters Written […] to His Son, London: P. Dodsley, 10th edition, 1792, Volume 2, Letter 219, p. 344, Play, in good company, is only play, and not gaming; not deep, and consequently not dangerous nor dishonourable. It is only the inter-acts of other amusements.

5. 5
   noun

   A pair or series of acts involving more than one person.

   Inasmuch as it is impossible to analyze the contents of an entire interpersonal relationship, it is helpful to conceptualize a given communication event as consisting of a series of subevents. Any one subevent may be pulled out as a basic unit for analysis in the study of interpersonal communication; this basic unit may then be called an interact. […] each interact is a distinctive attempt to conceal, repeat, or disclose information and/or to influence the relationship.

Etymology

From inter- + act.