Dictionary

operate

Etymology

From Latin operātus, past participle of operārī, from opus, operis.

Pronunciation

(RP) IPA: /ˈɒpəɹeɪt/
(America) IPA: /ˈɑpəɹeɪt/

Verb

operate (operates, present participle operating; simple past and past participle operated)

(transitive or intransitive) To perform a work or labour; to exert power or strength, physical or mechanical; to act.
Could someone explain how this meeting operates?
In this town, the garbage removal staff operate between six o'clock at midnight.
The police had inside knowledge of how the gang operated.
(intransitive) To produce an effect.
1. (intransitive) To produce an appropriate physical effect; to issue in the result designed by nature; especially (medicine) to take appropriate effect on the human system.
  - 2010, Peter A. Frensch, Ralf Schwarzer, Cognition and Neuropsychology:
    The drug operates by facilitating the negative neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), resulting in the blocking of neural long-term potentiation.
2. (intransitive) To act or produce an effect on the mind; to exert moral power or influence.
  - 1706 September 19 (Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Sermon Preach’d in the Guild-Hall Chapel, London, Sept. 28. 1706. Being the Day of the Election of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.”, in Fourteen Sermons Preach’d on Several Occasions. […], London: […] E. P. [Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1708, →OCLC ↗, page 405 ↗:
    The Virtues of private Perſons, how Bright and Exemplary ſoever, operate but on Few; on thoſe only who are near enough to obſerve, and inclin'd to imitate them: their ſphere of Action is narrow, and their Influence is confin'd to it.
  - 1720, Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman:
    A plain, convincing reason operates on the mind both of a learned and ignorant hearer as long as they live.
(transitive) To bring about as an effect; to cause.
(medicine, transitive or intransitive) 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.
The surgeon had to operate on her heart.
I'm being operated tomorrow.
(transitive or intransitive) To deal in stocks or any commodity with a view to speculative profits.
(transitive) To put into, or to continue in, operation or activity; to work.
to operate a machine
to operate a system
to operate a casino