WordNet
operate on
v. perform surgery on; "The doctors operated ont he patient but failed to save his life" [syn: operate]
Usage examples of "operate on".
And, while he would hardly operate on himself, surely he'd avail himself of the services of a skilled colleague.
If they mess it up again, that's their doing-but we have no right to operate on their minds.
They always operate on the assumption that they _may_ be found out.
But one doesn't even have to operate on such a grandiose scale, and I, personally, would prefer not to.
Moreover, many American policy makers continued to operate on the assumption that Saddam was a pragmatist who thought more or less like themselves and so would not do anything so rash as to conquer Kuwait.