operator
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɒpəˌɹeɪtə/
ipa: /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/
Forms: form: operators
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin operātor, from operor (“work, labour”). Equivalent to operate + -or.
Senses: examples: text: The drone crashed because of operator error.
text: The new bus operator has promised to improve the frequency of rural services.
text: The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc.
examples: text: To get an international line, you used to have to go through the operator.
text: I kept getting "number unobtainable", so I called the operator to find out what was going on.
glosses: A telecommunications facilitator whose job is to connect or otherwise assist callers.
glosses: A member of a military special operations unit.
glosses: The game of Chinese whispers.
examples: text: Francis Urquhart: I think Lord Billsborough is starting to lose touch a bit.
Tim Stamper: Shame. Used to be a hell of an operator in his day.
ref: 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:
glosses: A person who is adept at making deals or getting results, especially one who uses questionable methods.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A function or other mapping that carries values defined on a domain into another value or set of values in a defined range.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.
examples: text: In the sentence "What did Bill say he wants to buy?", "what" is an operator, binding a phonetically empty variable.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A kind of expression that enters into an a-bar movement dependency and is said to bind a variable.
topics: transport
glosses: A bus driver.
topics: business
mining
coordinate_terms: word: mineowner[coinstantial#Adjective|coinstantial]]>
word: ;
english: in contrast
translation: in contrast
word: mineworker#Noun
word: miner#Noun
word: worker#Noun
word: laborer#Noun
word: labor union#Noun
word: trade union#Noun
word: ;
word: regulator#Noun
qualifier: by ellipsis
glosses: The company that operates a mine; often the same one that owns the mine.
examples: text: Sir Ol. Sirrah! I got many a round Sum by it, when my Father wou'd not give me a Groat—Then, Sir, I was in with all the Top Gameſters, and when there was a fat Squire to be fleec'd; I had my Office among them too, and tho' I ſay it, was one of the neateſt Operators about Town.
ref: 1709 January 11, Colley Cibber, “The Rival Fools: […]”, in Mr. Cibber's Plays, volume II, London: […] B. Lintot […], published 1721, page 104:
text: Hank was saying, "Lyssa showed me the screenshots of Nate's accounts, so we know he's helping himself to Nate's money every month. The guy's a real operator."
ref: 2016, C. T. Collier, Planted, Scottsdale, A.Z.: Asdee Press, →ISBN, page 301:
glosses: A thief or charlatan.
examples: text: He started bleating to me this morning aboot being stretched on this hippy stalk. A fuckin waste of time. Big operators flooding the city with smack and three-quarters of the cunts we bang up are daft schemies or students with a wee bit of hash or a few pills for their pals.
ref: 1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 140:
text: The second thing is that smart operators like Cocky are only in it for the (huge amounts of) money.
ref: 2000 May 14, John Sweeney, “Cocky”, in The Observer, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2023:
glosses: A major criminal.
examples: text: I give credit to men who are great operators, as we once called them, with the girls. Once I was interviewing one of the most beautiful girls in the world in her suite at the Hotel Plaza. While she was busily denying to me that there was anything serious in her relationship with Warren Beatty, who should be barging into the next room of the suite with a lot of clothes being removed from another suite, but Warren Beatty?
ref: 1974, Earl Wilson, Show Business Laid Bare, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 188:
text: "Of course you're right, but the Baron is unfortunately a bit of an operator, if you know what I mean. He likes the ladies," said Salvatore with a wicked grin. "So he never gets in until two, sometimes even three in the morning, and that's because he goes dancing at the Mela; he's quite a playboy."
ref: 1988 [1977], Luciano De Crescenzo, translated by Avril Bardoni, Thus Spake Bellavista: Naples, Love, and Liberty, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, →ISBN, page 101:
text: Anyway, there's gonna be plenty of girls. Plenty of girls for an operator like you.
ref: 1996, George P. Pelecanos, The Big Blowdown, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 298:
glosses: Someone who is successful at pursuing women; a player.
Hyponyms: all-operator
arithmetic operator
assignment operator
bastard operator from hell
binary operator
bitwise operator
box operator
closure operator
comparison operator
conditional operator
co-operator
crane operator
d'Alembert operator
differential operator
Dunkl operator
elliptic operator
Elvis operator
excavator operator
flip-flop operator
forklift operator
Hamiltonian operator
hypoelliptic operator
infix operator
integral operator
Kleene operator
ladder operator
Laplace-Beltrami operator
Laplace-de Rham operator
Laplace operator
length operator
lifted operator
linear operator
logic operator
machine operator
marconi operator
mobile virtual network operator
NOT operator
owner-operator
pseudodifferential operator
quabla operator
radio operator
relational operator
rest operator
Reynolds operator
safe navigation operator
shape operator
short-circuit operator
short circuit operator
skyline operator
smooth operator
Sobel-Feldman operator
Sobel operator
spread operator
suede-shoe operator
system operator
telegraph operator
telephone operator
ternary operator
't Hooft operator
token-pasting operator
tour operator
unary operator
walrus operator
wave operator
wireless operator
Derived terms: cooperator
eigenoperator
hyperoperator
interoperator
intraoperator
metaoperator
nonoperator
operatorial
operatorless
operatorship
operator theory
operatress
operon
stoperator
superoperator
sysop
teleoperator
Related terms: opera
operable
operand
operant
operate
operation
operational
operative
opus