OPERATE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Operate

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ˈɑpərˌeɪt/ /ˈɔpərˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Operate v. t.

1.

To produce, as an effect; to cause. "The same cause would operate a diminution of the value of stock."

2.

To put into, or to continue in, operation or activity; to work; as, to operate a machine.

Operate v. i. (past & past part. operated; pres. part. operating)

1.

To perform a work or labor; to exert power or strength, physical or mechanical; to act.

2.

To produce an appropriate physical effect; to issue in the result designed by nature; especially (Med.), To take appropriate effect on the human system.

3.

To act or produce effect on the mind; to exert moral power or influence. "The virtues of private persons operate but on a few." "A plain, convincing reason operates on the mind both of a learned and ignorant hearer as long as they live."

4.

(Surg.) To perform some manual act upon a human body in a methodical manner, and usually with instruments, with a view to restore soundness or health, as in amputation, lithotomy, etc.

5.

To deal in stocks or any commodity with a view to speculative profits. (Brokers' Cant)

See images of 'Operate'

Etymology of 'Operate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Operate" Quotes from Famous Books

... the great object of all these politics, the end at which they aimed, as well as the instrument by which they were to operate. But, before Parliament could be made subservient to a system, by which it was to be degraded from the dignity of a national council, into a mere member of the Court, it must be greatly ...

— Thoughts on the Present Discontents - and Speeches • Edmund Burke

... away with entirely. Some straight line air compressors are so constructed that the momentum of the piston and other moving parts is nearly sufficient to equalize the strains without a fly wheel; but the fly wheel is there because it insures a definite length of stroke, and because it enables us to operate eccentrics and to regulate the speed of the ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 • Various

... political conditions what they are. Now, in bringing the book to a close, I desire to add a few reflections on the forces which have been at work, and to attempt the more hazardous task of conjecturing how those forces are likely to operate ...

— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce

... seriously affected its usefulness and progress. Even Lord Elgin was compelled to write in 1851 "that the tone adopted by the Church of England here has almost always had the effect of driving from her even those who would be most disposed to co-operate with her if she would allow them." At last freed from the political and the religious bitterness which was so long evoked by the absence of a conciliatory policy on the part of her leaders, this great church ...

— Lord Elgin • John George Bourinot

... the Emancipation Proclamation operate to confer freedom on all slaves within the rebel States? This question must likewise be brought to the Supreme Court for adjudication. If the Proclamation can be shown to have the qualities of a legislative act, doubtless it will operate as ...

— Continental Monthly , Vol IV, Issue VI, December 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various

Copyright © 2025 e-Free Translation.com