Definition of "in the act" []

• In the process of doing something considered criminal or otherwise wrong; used to emphasize the eye-witness evidence. (phrase)

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• "When the enemy endeavored to erect a battery themselves, Captain William Washington, cousin to the general and a superb cavalry officer, together with Lieutenant James Monroe, raced forward with the advance guard and, “taking two pieces in the act of firing, drove the artillerists from their guns.”"
• "Alexander, caught in the act and unwilling to challenge his father so soon after his return from exile, admitted he had behaved imprudently."
• "According to the legend — of which, however, St. Avitus, a witness of the baptism of Clovis, was ignorant in the fifth century, and the first trace of which appears in Hincmar — the holy ampulla was brought by a dove to St. Remigius when he was in the act of crowning Clovis."