operose
Americanadjective
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industrious, as a person.
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done with or involving much labor.
adjective
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laborious
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industrious; busy
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of operose
First recorded in 1530–50; from Latin operōsus “busy, active,” equivalent to oper- (stem of opus ) “work” + -ōsus -ose 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Stephens called it “dry operose quackery ... mere chaff not studied from nature, and therefore worthless, never felt, and therefore useless”.
From Nature ● Oct. 23, 2018
The girls marched past progressively tougher words, from heroine, blossom and dentifrice to operose, miscible and quadrumanous.
From Time Magazine Archive
He reposes on lion skins, suggestive of swift strength, leisurely superior to operose muscularity.
From Time Magazine Archive
An operose and expensive establishment of a Supreme Court was made, and charged upon the revenues of the country.
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 08 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
Nor is the ascription of existence to universality, particularity, and co-inhesion dependent on any sui generis existence of their own; for such an hypothesis is operose, requiring too many sui generis existences.
From The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy by Madhava Acharya
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
