Meaning

(transitive or intransitive) To perform a work or labour; to exert power or strength, physical or mechanical; to act..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive or intransitive) To perform a work or labour; to exert power or strength, physical or mechanical; to act.
2. (intransitive) To produce an effect.
3. (transitive) To bring about as an effect; to cause.
4. (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.
5. (transitive or intransitive) To deal in stocks or any commodity with a view to speculative profits.
6. (transitive) To put into, or to continue in, operation or activity; to work.

Example Sentences

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.

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.

Strictures upon style, which are for the most part good, but time has operated a change in many respects even since he wrote.

It is supposed that western Europe was overpopulated and that the crusades operated a beneficial reduction of numbers.

The surgeon had to operate on her heart.

I'm being operated tomorrow.

Word Forms

• operates
• operating
• operated

Synonyms for operate

Antonyms for operate

Related Words

When Should You Use Operate?

Use operate when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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