verb
- Direct or control; projects, businesses, etc..
- usage: "She is running a relief operation in the Sudan"
- Perform as expected when applied.
- usage: "The washing machine won't go unless it's plugged in"; "Does this old car still run well"; "This old radio doesn't work anymore"
- Handle and cause to function.
- usage: "do not operate machinery after imbibing alcohol"; "control the lever"
- Perform a movement in military or naval tactics in order to secure an advantage in attack or defense.
- Happen.
- usage: "What is going on in the minds of the people"
- synonyms: operate
- Keep engaged.
- usage: "engaged the gears"
- Perform surgery on.
- usage: "The doctors operated on the patient but failed to save his life"
- synonyms: operate on, operate
adjective
- Involved in a kind of operation.
- usage: "the operating conditions of the oxidation pond"
- Being in effect or operation.
- usage: "de facto apartheid is still operational even in the `new' African nations- Leslie Marmon Silko; "bus service is in operation during the emergency"; "the company had several operating divisions"
- synonyms: operational, in operation