operate
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Latin operatus, past participle of operari (“to work, labor, toil, have effect”), from opus, operis (“work, labor”).
Pronunciation [edit]
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Audio (US) (file)
Verb [edit]
operate (third-person singular simple present operates, present participle operating, simple past and past participle operated)
- To perform a work or labour; to exert power or strength, physical or mechanical; to act.
- To produce an appropriate physical effect; to issue in the result designed by nature; especially (Med.), to take appropriate effect on the human system.
- To act or produce effect on the mind; to exert moral power or influence.
- (medicine) 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.
- To deal in stocks or any commodity with a view to speculative profits.
- To produce, as an effect; to cause.
- 2012 January 1, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 23:
- We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
- 2012 January 1, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 23:
- To put into, or to continue in, operation or activity; to work; as, to operate a machine.
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to perform a work or labour
to produce a physical effect
to produce effect on the mind; to exert moral power
medicine
to deal in stocks
to operate a machine
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Translations to be checked
References [edit]
- operate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- operate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
Italian [edit]
Adjective [edit]
operate pl
- Plural form of operata
Verb [edit]
operate
- second-person plural present tense of operare
- second-person plural imperative of operare
- feminine plural past participle of operare
Anagrams [edit]
Latin [edit]
Participle [edit]
operāte
- vocative masculine singular of operātus
