From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishout of actionout of actionBROKEN a) broken and not working The photocopier is out of action again. b) injured and unable to do anythingput/keep somebody out of action The injury will keep him out of action for a month. → action
Examples from the Corpus
out of action• She sustained a mild concussion in the game against the Xplosion, and was held out of action.• These were strategic points: a bombed bridge could put the line out of action for as long as a year.• I dropped my M 16 into the mud and was out of action for a few minutes.• A few moments later the two photographers came sheepishly to tell me that the video camera was out of action. 