act of God
 天災,不可抗拒的力量


 Act n.
 1. That which is done or doing; the exercise of power, or the effect, of which power exerted is the cause; a performance; a deed.
 That best portion of a good man's life,
 His little, nameless, unremembered acts
 Of kindness and of love.   --Wordsworth.
 Hence, in specific uses: (a) The result of public deliberation; the decision or determination of a legislative body, council, court of justice, etc.; a decree, edit, law, judgment, resolve, award; as, an act of Parliament, or of Congress. (b) A formal solemn writing, expressing that something has been done. --Abbott. (c) A performance of part of a play; one of the principal divisions of a play or dramatic work in which a certain definite part of the action is completed. (d) A thesis maintained in public, in some English universities, by a candidate for a degree, or to show the proficiency of a student.
 2. A state of reality or real existence as opposed to a possibility or possible existence. [Obs.]
    The seeds of plants are not at first in act, but in possibility, what they afterward grow to be.   --Hooker.
 3. Process of doing; action. In act, in the very doing; on the point of (doing). “In act to shoot.”
    This woman was taken . . . in the very act.   --John viii. 4.
 Act of attainder. Law See Attainder.
 Act of bankruptcy Law, an act of a debtor which renders him liable to be adjudged a bankrupt.
 Act of faith. Ch. Hist. See Auto-da-Fé.
 Act of God Law, an inevitable accident; such extraordinary interruption of the usual course of events as is not to be looked for in advance, and against which ordinary prudence could not guard.
 Act of grace, an expression often used to designate an act declaring pardon or amnesty to numerous offenders, as at the beginning of a new reign.
 Act of indemnity, a statute passed for the protection of those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them to penalties. --Abbott.
 Act in pais, a thing done out of court (anciently, in the country), and not a matter of record.
 Syn: -- See Action.


 Vis ma·jor.  Law A superior force which under certain circumstances is held to exempt from contract obligations; inevitable accident; -- a civil-law term used as nearly equivalent to, but broader than, the common-law term act of God (which see).

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 Ca·sus n.  An event; an occurrence; an occasion; a combination of circumstances; a case; an act of God. See the Note under Accident.
 Casus belli, an event or combination of events which is a cause war, or may be alleged as a justification of war.
 Casus fortuitus, an accident against which due prudence could not have provided. See Act of God, under Act.
 Casus omissus, a case not provided for by the statute.

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 God n.
 1. A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol.
    He maketh a god, and worshipeth it.   --Is. xliv. 15.
 The race of Israel . . . bowing lowly down
 To bestial gods.   --Milton.
 2. The Supreme Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the Sovereign of the universe; Jehovah.
    God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.   --John iv. 24.
 3. A person or thing deified and honored as the chief good; an object of supreme regard.
    Whose god is their belly.   --Phil. iii. 19.
 4. Figuratively applied to one who wields great or despotic power. [R.]
 Act of God. Law See under Act.
 Gallery gods, the occupants of the highest and cheapest gallery of a theater. [Colloq.]
 God's acre, God's field, a burial place; a churchyard. See under Acre.
 God's house. (a) An almshouse. [Obs.] (b) A church.
 God's penny, earnest penny. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl.
 God's Sunday, Easter.


 act of God
      n : a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the
          expected course of events; "he discovered that his house
          was not insured against acts of God" [syn: force majeure,
           vis major, inevitable accident, {unavoidable
          casualty]