operation

Noun

operation (countable and uncountable, plural operations)

1. (uncountable) The method by which a device performs its function.
   • It is dangerous to look at the beam of a laser while it is in operation.
2. (uncountable) The method or practice by which actions are done.
3. (uncountable) The act or process of operating (verb): agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.
   • the pain and sickness caused by manna are confessedly nothing but the effects of its operations on the stomach and guts.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 8
   • Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation, can never attain to perfection.1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   operating

4. (countable) A planned undertaking.
   • The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.
   • The Katrina relief operation was considered botched.
5. (countable) A business or organization.
   • We run our operation from a storefront.
   • They run a multinational produce-supply operation.
6. (countable) A surgical procedure.
   • She had an operation to remove her appendix.
   • This done, ſhe performs the very ſame Operation on the other Side of the Cock's Body, and there takes out the other Stone; then ſhe ſtitches up the Wounds, and lets the Fowl go about as at other Times, till the Capon is fatted in a Coup, which is commonly done from Chriſtmas to Candlemas, and after.1750, W[illiam] Ellis, The Country Housewife's Family Companion […] , London: James Hodges; B. Collins, →OCLC, page 157
7. (countable) A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).
   • The number of operands associated with an operation is called its arity; an operation of arity 2 is called a binary operation.

   Synonyms:

   function, transformation

   1. (countable, more formally) A function which maps zero or more (but typically two) operands to a single output value.
8. (countable) A military campaign (e.g. Operation Desert Storm).
9. (countable, obsolete) Effect produced; influence.
   • The bards […] had great operation on the vulgar.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)