operator

[op-uh-rey-ter]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR operator ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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.

Origin of operator

1590–1600; < Late Latin, equivalent to operā(rī) to work, effect (see operate) + Latin -tor -tor

Related formspre·op·er·a·tor, nounself-op·er·a·tor, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

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.
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.
David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News
December 9, 2014
Teague replied: “I have to allow an operator or plugger a way to appeal when he believes our requirements are unreasonable.”
Two Texas Regulators Tried to Enforce the Rules. They Were Fired.
David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News
December 9, 2014
In 1881, along came Bailey, operator of another circus, and two circuses joined to give rise to the first three-ring spectacle.
We’re All Carnies Now: Why We Can’t Quit the Circus
Anthony Paletta
November 27, 2014
Unsure of what to do, the operator asked a superior what the correct move would be.
The Israeli Way of Death
Miranda Frum
July 2, 2014
SGR-A1 scans autonomously, and once it detects suspected intruders alerts the operator.
Smoke Rings, Mystery Backpacks and Gun-Toting Robots: The Weird Wartech of the Korean Conflict
Kyle Mizokami
April 3, 2014

Historical Examples of operator

Add the weight of the operator to the weight of the complete machine.
Flying Machines
W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
This includes the total weight of the machine and equipment, and also the operator.
Flying Machines
W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
Bleriot—(Drexel, operator)—exactly the same as Moissant's machine.
Flying Machines
W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
This apparatus is intended to carry only one person (the operator).
Flying Machines
W.J. Jackman and Thos. H. Russell
The operator offered him the hospitality of the private room, but this he declined.
A Woman Intervenes
Robert Barr

British Dictionary definitions for operator

operator

noun

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)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for operator

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).

operator in Medicine

operator

[ŏp′ə-rā′tər]

n.

An operator gene.

operator in Science

operator

[ŏp′ə-rā′tər]

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.