| Library / English Dictionary |
OPERATOR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A shrewd or unscrupulous person who knows how to circumvent difficulties
Synonyms:
hustler; operator; wheeler dealer
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("operator" is a kind of...):
opportunist; self-seeker (a person who places expediency above principle)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "operator"):
wire-puller (one who uses secret influence (i.e. pulls wires or strings) for his own ends)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An agent that operates some apparatus or machine
Example:
the operator of the switchboard
Synonyms:
manipulator; operator
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("operator" is a kind of...):
causal agency; causal agent; cause (any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "operator"):
company operator (an operator who works for a company)
driver (the operator of a motor vehicle)
elevator operator (an operator of an elevator)
engine driver; engineer; locomotive engineer; railroad engineer (the operator of a railway locomotive)
hoister (an operator of a hoist)
jockey (an operator of some vehicle or machine or apparatus)
motorman (the operator of streetcar)
radio operator (someone who operates a radio transmitter)
switchman (a man who operates railroad switches)
telegraph operator; telegrapher; telegraphist (someone who transmits messages by telegraph)
switchboard operator; telephone operator; telephonist (someone who helps callers get the person they are calling)
Derivation:
operate (handle and cause to function)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Someone who owns or operates a business
Example:
who is the operator of this franchise?
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("operator" is a kind of...):
businessman; man of affairs (a person engaged in commercial or industrial business (especially an owner or executive))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "operator"):
supermarketeer; supermarketer (an operator of a supermarket)
Derivation:
operate (direct or control; projects, businesses, etc.)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A speculator who trades aggressively on stock or commodity markets
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("operator" is a kind of...):
plunger; speculator (someone who risks losses for the possibility of considerable gains)
Sense 5
Meaning:
(mathematics) a symbol or function representing a mathematical operation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas
Hypernyms ("operator" is a kind of...):
function; map; mapping; mathematical function; single-valued function ((mathematics) a mathematical relation such that each element of a given set (the domain of the function) is associated with an element of another set (the range of the function))
Domain category:
math; mathematics; maths (a science (or group of related sciences) dealing with the logic of quantity and shape and arrangement)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "operator"):
linear operator (an operator that obeys the distributive law: A(f+g) = Af + Ag (where f and g are functions))
identity; identity element; identity operator (an operator that leaves unchanged the element on which it operates)
Context examples:
These were, I shortly found, connected almost solely with the dusty nature of the job, and of the consequent thirst engendered in the operators.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Mission operators were also faced with an imminent month-long period when the sun is close to the line-of-sight between Earth and Rosetta, meaning communications with the craft would have become increasingly more difficult.
(Final Descent Image from Rosetta Spacecraft, NASA)
Named UbatubaSat, the students' satellite can be the first fully Brazilian satellite to operate in orbit, where it will be able to measure the distance of space probes, detect forming space bubbles, communicate with amateur radio operators, and send messages recorded by students.
(Satellite made by Brazilian junior high students launched in Japan, Agência Brasil)
There are 3 mobile phone operators and one radio antenna, an FM radio, so modulated frequencies.
(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)
The method is this: You take a hundred leaders of each party; you dispose them into couples of such whose heads are nearest of a size; then let two nice operators saw off the occiput of each couple at the same time, in such a manner that the brain may be equally divided.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Hard to get the opinion of operators and manufactures, they do not want to give their point of view and refer to their websites, where internal studies are published, so no objectivity guaranteed.
(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)
It included operators and residents.
(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)
