operation
/ɒpəˈreɪʃ(ə)n
/noun
1 [mass noun] The action of functioning or the fact of being active or in effect: restrictions on the operation of market forces the company’s first hotel is now in operation...
- The company has eight power plants in operation and seven under construction.
- Maybe I don't but there needs to be work done even if just to prove that the Placebo effect is in operation.
- Since 1997, some 40 hospitals and 550 schools are under construction or in operation.
Synonyms
functioning, working, running, performance, action, behaviour
effect, force, potency, power, effectiveness
functioning, working, running, up and running, operative, in use, in action, going;
operational, workable, serviceable, functional, usable, in working order/condition, viable;
in force, effective, in effect, valid
1.1 [count noun] An active process; a discharge of a function: the operations of the mind...
- The attorney general really has no direct relation to the operation and function of the election operations in each of these counties.
- As we said last November, they're not mentioned in the Reserve Bank Act 1959 or its own overview of its functions and operations.
- Because these operations discharge uneaten food, pesticides and fish waste into the ocean, they need permits.
2An act of surgery performed on a patient: I’ve never felt better since my bypass operation...
- To avoid this problem, some surgeons perform coronary bypass operations on beating hearts.
- Vasectomy can easily be performed as an outpatient operation under local anaesthetic.
- Patients can visit day surgery units for small operations and be allowed to return home later in the day or evening.
Synonyms
surgery, surgical operation, surgical intervention, major surgery, minor surgery
3 [often with adjective or noun modifier] An organized activity involving a number of people: a rescue operation [in names]: Operation Desert Storm...
- His leadership combined military operations, government administration, and economic management.
- Arguably they are too late, since the unprecedented military operation staged to rescue her was itself a made for-TV movie directed by the Pentagon.
- The official avoided making specific comments on the possibility of a U.S.-led military operation to rescue Koda.
Synonyms
action, activity, exercise, affair, business, undertaking, step, enterprise, task, job, process, procedure, manoeuvre, campaign
3.1A business organization; a company: he reopened his operation under a different name...
- Today, the companies are vastly different operations and producing returns at opposite ends of the scale for their owners.
- Inquiries about a private operation produced an estimate of £19,000.
- Most companies have not made the transition from being multi-region organizations to truly global operations.
Synonyms
business, enterprise, company, firm, organization, concern
informal outfit, set-up
3.2An activity in which a business is involved: the company is selling most of its commercial banking operations...
- The sequence of banking operations involved in payment turns, in part, on whether there is a credit transfer or debit transfer.
- I'm not really involved in the day-to-day operations of the business, but I'm trying to get more and more involved.
- They are long on management talent and typically expect to be involved in the day-to-day operations of acquired businesses.
4 Mathematics A process in which a number, quantity, expression, etc., is altered or manipulated according to set formal rules, such as those of addition, multiplication, and differentiation.Problems can be created to cover all math operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division!...
- That is addition, multiplication and the two inverse operations of subtraction and division.
- For example, one can have a group in which the objects are numbers and the combining operation is addition or multiplication.
Phrases
come into (or go out of) operation
put something into operation
Origin
Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin operatio(n-), from the verb operari 'expend labour on' (see operate).
office from Middle English:
In the Middle Ages office meant a duty that went with someone's position or employment. It goes back ultimately to Latin officium ‘performance of a task’, which in turn comes from the combined elements of opus ‘work’ (source of English opus in the early 19th century and of operation (Late Middle English)) and facere ‘to do’. The sense of ‘a place for business’ is recorded from the later Middle Ages. Someone officious (Late Middle English) was originally obliging or efficient in carrying out their office. The word developed its modern negative sense at the end of the 16th century.