operator
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 goals or 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 potential sexual or romantic partners.
Genetics. a segment of DNA that interacts with a regulatory molecule, preventing transcription of the adjacent region.
Origin of operator
1Other words from operator
- pre·op·er·a·tor, noun
- self-op·er·a·tor, noun
Words Nearby operator
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use operator in a sentence
I later went to New York for three years to train nuclear operators in Saratoga Springs.
Pepco employee talks diversity, inclusion, and COVID | Staff reports | August 28, 2020 | Washington BladeThe plaintiffs in the new cases are essentially arguing that streaming services have more in common with cable TV operators than they do with the Internet.
Streaming fees could rise 5% as cities sue to impose a ‘Netflix tax’ | Jeff | August 19, 2020 | FortuneIt turned out that not all service operators had made the effort to tell users in advance.
How India became the world’s leader in internet shutdowns | Katie McLean | August 19, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewThat task falls to professional operators, experts in an individual telescope’s complex operations who still work in control rooms located on observatory mountaintops.
An operator answering the phone referred the Blade to the direct number of the department’s Chief of Police, Andrew Block.
Brian Sims accused of threatening fellow Pa. lawmaker | Lou Chibbaro Jr. | August 9, 2020 | Washington Blade
Just because two pieces of malware share a common ancestry, it obviously does not mean they share a common 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 | THE DAILY BEASTTeague 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 | THE DAILY BEASTIn 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 | THE DAILY BEASTHe had a steady job as a machine operator, and owned his own home.
It was round, with a small, rectangular projection for the operator's controls and calculator.
Fee of the Frontier | Horace Brown FyfeAgain it was empty except for the operator, a tow-headed kid with a Racing Form tucked in a side pocket.
The operator who was speculating in a small way himself smiled when he read the telegram.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine | John Fox, Jr.And as if in answer to their thoughts, the operator straightened, with a little gesture of hopelessness.
The White Desert | Courtney Ryley CooperAt last the wire opened again, and the operator went once more to his desk.
The White Desert | Courtney Ryley Cooper
British Dictionary definitions for operator
/ (ˈɒpəˌreɪtə) /
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
Scientific definitions for 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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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