(~s, operating, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
If you ~ a business or organization, you work to keep it running properly. If a business or organization ~s, it carries out its work.
Until his death in 1986 Greenwood owned and ~d an enormous pear orchard.
...allowing commercial banks to ~ in the country...
Operating costs jumped from ?85.3m to ?95m.
VERB: V n, V, V-ing
operation
Company finance is to provide funds for the everyday operation of the business.
N-UNCOUNT
2.
The way that something ~s is the way that it works or has a particular effect.
Ceiling and wall lights can ~ independently...
The world of work doesn’t ~ that way.
VERB: V adv/prep, V n
operation
Why is it the case that taking part-time work is made so difficult by the operation of the benefit system?
N-UNCOUNT: oft N of n
3.
When you ~ a machine or device, or when it ~s, you make it work.
A massive rock fall trapped the men as they ~d a tunnelling machine...
The number of fax machines operating around the world has now reached ten million.
VERB: V n, V
operation
...over 1,000 dials monitoring every aspect of the operation of the aeroplane.
N-UNCOUNT
4.
When surgeons ~ on a patient in a hospital, they cut open a patient’s body in order to remove, replace, or repair a diseased or damaged part.
The surgeon who ~d on the King released new details of his injuries...
You examine a patient and then you decide whether or not to ~.
VERB: V on n, V
5.
If military forces are operating in a particular region, they are in that place in order to carry out their orders.
Up to ten thousand Zimbabwean soldiers are operating in Mozambique...
VERB: V prep