Literary notes about overt (AI summary)
Literature employs the term "overt" to denote actions or behaviors that are plainly observable and unmistakably apparent. Writers often use it to emphasize legal or political acts that leave little room for ambiguity—as when discussing treason or outright hostility [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]—but it is equally applied to underline clear displays of virtue, vice, or emotion [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. In legal and philosophical discussions, for instance, "overt" act is a standard for defining conduct that can be objectively verified [12, 13], while in more narrative and reflective contexts it contrasts with the inner, unspoken dimensions of thought and feeling [14, 15, 16]. This multifaceted usage reinforces the idea that what is overt is both manifest to the senses and significant in its moral and societal implications.
- He committed the first overt act of the war.
— from Stories Of Georgia by Joel Chandler Harris - The American Constitution requires two witnesses to the same overt act, to convict of treason.
— from The Trial of Jesus from a Lawyer's Standpoint, Vol. 1 (of 2) The Hebrew Trial by Walter M. (Walter Marion) Chandler - No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison - After the affair at Plataea, the treaty had been broken by an overt act, and Athens at once prepared for war, as did also Lacedaemon and her allies.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - The Athenians went with thirty ships to the relief of the Argives, thus breaking their treaty with the Lacedaemonians in the most overt manner.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - [“That overt and simple virtue is converted into an obscure and subtle science.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - It requires not overt acts of actual wickedness to tarnish its brightness, and cast suspicion on its purity.
— from Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness and Happiness Being a Series of Lectures to Youth of Both Sexes, on Character, Principles, Associates, Amusements, Religion, and Marriage by John Mather Austin - When an act is overt, it is irretrievably launched.
— from Ethics by John Dewey - There is one continuous behavior, proceeding from a more uncertain, divided, hesitating state to a more overt, determinate, or complete state.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - Curiosity burned in all of them, but its overt expression was limited to the dead-pan stare.
— from West Of The Sun by Edgar Pangborn - The law deals, for the most part, with overt acts and facts which can be known by the senses.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - But the making of a contract does not depend on the state of the parties' minds, it depends on their overt acts.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - I suppose I may say they idolised him, but I never caught them giving him an overt glance.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad - As I step to the other side of the table, I find that sleep has overtaken him in an overt act of hoary wickedness.
— from Urban Sketches by Bret Harte - Nevertheless, Charles's borrowing is particularly overt and direct.
— from The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle
