Examples Word Origin
See more synonyms for operator on Thesaurus.com a person who operates a machine, apparatus, or the like: a telegraph operator. a person who operates a telephone switchboard, especially for a telephone company. a person who manages a working or industrial establishment, enterprise, or system: the operators of a mine. a person who trades in securities, especially speculatively or on a large scale. a person who performs a surgical operation; a surgeon. Mathematics a symbol for expressing a mathematical operation . a function, especially one transforming a function, set, etc., into another: a differential operator. Informal a person who accomplishes his or her purposes by devious means; faker; fraud. a person who is adroit at overcoming, avoiding, or evading difficulties, regulations, or restrictions. a person who is extremely successful with or smoothly persuasive to members of the opposite sex. Genetics a segment of DNA that interacts with a regulatory molecule, preventing transcription of the adjacent region. Show More
Origin of operator 1590–1600; <
Late Latin, equivalent to
operā(rī ) to work, effect (see
operate ) +
Latin -tor -tor Related forms pre·op·er·a·tor , noun self-op·er·a·tor , noun Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for operator driver ,
engineer ,
administrator ,
executive ,
supervisor ,
speculator ,
manager ,
dealer ,
agent ,
broker ,
operative ,
director ,
fraud ,
scoundrel ,
hustler ,
conductor ,
operant Examples from the Web for operator Contemporary Examples of operator Wright approved one of the wells after the operator agreed to bring it into compliance, according to the letter.
Teague replied: “I have to allow an operator or plugger a way to appeal when he believes our requirements are unreasonable.”
In 1881, along came Bailey, operator of another circus, and two circuses joined to give rise to the first three-ring spectacle.
Unsure of what to do, the operator asked a superior what the correct move would be.
SGR-A1 scans autonomously, and once it detects suspected intruders alerts the operator .
Historical Examples of operator Add the weight of the operator to the weight of the complete machine.
This includes the total weight of the machine and equipment, and also the operator .
Bleriot—(Drexel, operator )—exactly the same as Moissant's machine.
This apparatus is intended to carry only one person (the operator ).
The operator offered him the hospitality of the private room, but this he declined.
British Dictionary definitions for operator a person who operates a machine, instrument, etc, esp, a person who makes connections on a telephone switchboard or at an exchange a person who owns or operates an industrial or commercial establishment a speculator, esp one who operates on currency or stock markets informal a person who manipulates affairs and other people maths any symbol, term, letter, etc, used to indicate or express a specific operation or process, such as Δ (the differential operator) Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for operator n. 1590s, "one who performs mechanical or surgical operations," agent noun from operate (v.) or from Late Latin operator . Meaning "one who carries on business shrewdly" is from 1828. Specific sense of "one who works a telephone switchboard" (1884) grew out of earlier meaning "one who works a telegraph" (1847).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Mathematics A function, especially one from a set to itself, such as differentiation of a differentiable function or rotation of a vector. In quantum mechanics, measurable quantities of a physical system, such as position and momentum, are related to unique operators applied to the wave equation describing the system. A logical operator. Genetics A segment of chromosomal DNA that regulates the activity of the structural genes of an operon by interacting with a specific repressor. Show More
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.