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operation
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
operation
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a combat mission/operation
▪ He flew 280 combat missions in two wars.
a relief operation
▪ UN officials accused the government of obstructing relief operations in the south of the country.
a rescue operation/mission
▪ A major rescue operation was launched yesterday after two divers were reported missing.
a routine operation/procedure (=medical operation)
▪ Many routine operations had to be cancelled.
an emergency operation (=a medical operation that is carried out quickly when someone has been injured or become ill suddenly)
▪ He had an emergency operation to save his sight.
cease trading/production/operations etc (=stop operating a business)
▪ The company ceased production at their Norwich plant last year.
combined effort/action/operation
▪ Dinner was a combined effort.
intelligence operations/sources/reports etc
▪ Intelligence sources denied the reports.
minor injury/illness/operation etc (=one that is not very serious or dangerous)
▪ He escaped with only minor injuries.
perform an operation
▪ The surgeon who performed the operation said it had gone well.
salvage operation
▪ a massive salvage operation
smooth running/operation
▪ Sarah is responsible for the smooth running of the sales department.
the efficient operation of sth
▪ The law must protect investors without interfering with the efficient operation of the market.
undergo treatment/surgery/an operation
▪ The cyclist underwent emergency surgery yesterday after a collision with a car.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
international
▪ The restricted licence covers domestic and international goods vehicle operation for own account haulage.
▪ The company said it will combine its international commercial-industrial operations with its domestic commercial-industrial business unit.
▪ Skandia will swap part of its international reinsurance operations for 21 p.c. of its shares held by Uni Storebrand.
▪ Banks with international operations, securities trading desks and other non-lending businesses fared best.
▪ Many have previous distinguished careers on fast jets in the Royal Air Force or in international long-haul operations.
▪ But that review did not anticipate the additional burdens placed on our military in the past few years by international peace operations.
▪ Mr McCartney, 43 years old, previously was vice president, international operations.
major
▪ If, at 57, he looks frailer than ever, a recent major intestinal operation is to blame.
▪ You did, however, take a major financial operation and put it under a trader.
▪ Divers alert: A major rescue operation was launched yesterday after two divers were reported missing off Redcar.
▪ In Venice it was a major operation, masterminded in this case by Michelato.
▪ It was, as has often been observed, a safe prediction that major operations would not take place in midwinter.
▪ A hysterectomy is a major operation with a long recovery period.
▪ And Nils was planning a major operation on our engine.
▪ The range of suppliers is also wide - from public agencies through major commercial operations to one-man consultancies.
military
▪ Read in studio A military operation involving four thousand servicemen has ended with a dramatic finale over Salisbury Plain.
▪ After weeks of planning, the first phase of the military operation went well.
▪ It was here that I first started to get a closer feel for what the military operations were.
▪ He merely flew into the airport, where the military rescue operation was being organized.
▪ The slaves gathered on August 30, 1800, but disbanded because a violent storm and flood made military operations impossible.
▪ Voting was prevented or disrupted in some areas by military operations when soldiers took advantage of the truce.
▪ But it is not clear whether the military operation which unfolded yesterday could have been organised in only four days.
routine
▪ They claim that he removed healthy wombs and bungled routine operations, leaving them with bladder, kidney and liver damage.
▪ For one, with so little time in the field, there was insufficient information about routine operations.
▪ It would be very different unloading the skip across the beach to the routine operation in Marchwood Military Port.
▪ An Ayrshire man is considering legal action against Crosshouse Hospital after his wife died following a routine operation.
▪ The simulations involved real-time, interactive, routine operations, such as the actions of hanger and flight deck operators.
▪ For a routine operation in which everybody knows what they are doing high involvement and high intensity are less critical.
▪ In other words, the routine operation of reason is not just a matter of routine.
▪ It is now a relatively routine operation available in the national health service.
whole
▪ The whole operation however is more efficient with two persons with one applying and the other following and drying.
▪ He slides himself and his whole operation nearer to the window.
▪ There are lots of companies who will take charge of this whole operation, including the printing and fixing of the labels.
▪ The whole operation was done in a spirit of perfect disdain.
▪ The whole operation was based on 50 journeys or rounds, one for each vehicle on every working day of the week.
▪ It can even jeopardise the whole operation.
▪ Cheryl Peterson oversees the whole operation.
▪ The whole operation has cost about £60 million, around half of which has come directly from central government.
■ NOUN
intelligence
▪ Naisbitt has transferred this technique from intelligence operations to commercial and social applications, with some very interesting results.
▪ After the Watts rebellion, Johnsoh asked Hoover to expand his intelligence operations to include riot prediction.
▪ But these were not covert intelligence operations.
rescue
▪ Divers alert: A major rescue operation was launched yesterday after two divers were reported missing off Redcar.
▪ After searching two days for the body, authorities called off the rescue operation.
▪ He merely flew into the airport, where the military rescue operation was being organized.
▪ Indeed, the entire rescue operation seems to have proceeded at a glacial pace.
▪ Fortunately a small group of folk banded together determined to save the bird and the rescue operation began.
▪ This was the command center for the dangerous rescue operation of ValuJet Flight 592.
▪ This rescue operation proved reasonably successful, as shown by Table 11.4.
▪ Some sites are so important that it may be necessary for a rescue operation on an international scale.
■ VERB
begin
▪ The Shenzhen exchange had begun trial operations in May 1990.
▪ Starting in the early 1990s, federal agents began setting up sting operations, including several in Maryland.
▪ This they did at Motherwell, and the Dalzell works began operations early in 1872, employing 200 men.
▪ Finally, at the end of the decade, a second automobile production plant began operation in East Liberty, Ohio.
▪ When Fraser began operation in the 1960s, motor homes were unheard of in motor racing.
▪ The resulting backbone connected thirteen sites and began operation in July 1988.
▪ The first company to have received a licence is due to begin operations by the end of this year.
▪ For example, a new facility there to make anti- cancer drugs is scheduled to begin operations this fall.
carry
▪ An officer visited the Mill Lane Industrial Estate and found the company still carrying out their cleaning operation.
▪ The control unit then enters the execute phase, to carry out the operation decoded in the fetch phase.
▪ Once a teacher took some time with you, and you learned how to carry out these operations.
▪ Some in industry have to carry out the same operation.
▪ Mr Bewick was criticised strongly yesterday by Mr Sells for carrying out too many operations rather than reflecting on the ethics involved.
▪ Simply by carrying out its day-to-day operations, an organisation necessarily communicates certain messages to those who interact with it.
▪ Where is the operation carried out?
combine
▪ Xorandor's logic transgresses that of binary systems because he combines mutually exclusive operations.
▪ The company said it will combine its international commercial-industrial operations with its domestic commercial-industrial business unit.
▪ The environmentally friendly retail chain will combine its Web operations with its retail and mail order activities.
▪ The results reflected combined operations from the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, which took effect Aug. 1.
▪ The associated information from the strings is merged according to prescribed information combining operations.
▪ The first point is that generating letters and updating records must be combined into a single operation.
▪ And a combined navy and army operation brought about the fall of the stronger Fort Morgan on August 23.
continue
▪ An essential component of any local management scheme is the staff training which precedes its introduction and continues throughout its operation.
▪ They encourage efforts to preserve that potential, and urge continued co-operation in this area.
▪ It also has a built-in fault detection system which effectively off-lines defective elements, while the remainder continue operations.
▪ Otherwise, actual profit on continuing operations is compared with the 120-day estimate.
▪ The company has said it is seeking new partners to continue operations.
▪ Chapter 11 permits a company to avoid immediate bankruptcy liquidation and continue in operation, at least temporarily.
▪ Revenue from continuing operations rose 6. 7 percent to $ 290 million from $ 272 million.
▪ The drug maker also said its 1995 earnings from continuing operations will surpass $ 2. 80 a share.
perform
▪ Two surgeons will perform all the operations.
▪ You can sort these tables and even perform mathematical operations on them.
▪ There are instructions to move strings, to compare them, and to perform the usual logical operations.
▪ Although digital computers have to simulate this parallelism, true neural network hardware will really perform the operations in parallel.
▪ It is also very useful if you need to perform some conversion operation on a file.
▪ My doctors performed a bypass operation to clear away a blockage in the blood vessels that supply my heart.
▪ They had to perform a tracheotomy throat operation to aid his breathing.
▪ To prevent certain paralysis they needed to perform a series of operations to graft a spinal vertebra.
run
▪ The need to be popular with growers while at the same time run a large commercial operation clashed, he says.
▪ Dan Flynn ran a clean operation.
▪ At Ellesmere Port a foreman and seven fitters run a 24 hour operation in two main shifts.
▪ Although he runs the operation with a firm hand, the Steelers are more like a family than any other team.
▪ We won't be run by a central operations centre.
▪ Connors ran toward the operations tent.
▪ I was supposed to be running the operation but I got caught up with other business.
▪ A company with severe cash flow problems may have no choice but to run a lean inventory operation.
undergo
▪ She's already undergone an operation to have shrapnel removed from her back.
▪ He did the same thing six months ago when he underwent a heart operation at Washington Hospital Center.
▪ This is particularly the case for patients undergoing operations.
▪ He underwent a six-hour operation and remained hospitalized for 15 days.
▪ He underwent an operation on an injured thigh in the summer and will be missing until February.
▪ Ashe, now 48, underwent a quadruple bypass operation after a heart attack at the age of 35.
▪ She also has asthma and has undergone 50 operations since birth.
▪ About to undergo his third knee operation in six years, he wondered if he would ever bowl fast again.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(heart) bypass operation/surgery
amphibious operation/force/assault
▪ MacArthur stated that it was imperative to prevent the dispatch of an amphibious force.
▪ Marines will be landing from several San Diego-based ships, led by the amphibious assault ships Tarawa and Peleliu.
▪ Operation Downfall called for two amphibious assaults.
▪ Ross previously was assigned as executive officer of the amphibious assault ship Essex.
▪ The amphibious assault ship Peleliu will lead the ready group, which includes the Juneau and Comstock.
▪ Two other such joint exercises, involving marine and amphibious forces, were already scheduled to start on Aug. 3.
core business/activities/operations etc
▪ Additionally, entire segments of some companies will be eliminated as companies identify and refocus on their core business.
▪ But the single most reliable route to growth is probably to sell off everything but the core business.
▪ In all its acquisitions, Guinness has sought business opportunities that have enhanced and strengthened its core activities.
▪ None was big enough to become the core business of the company, Ousley says.
▪ Our strategy is to focus all our resources on the two core businesses of spirits and beers.
▪ This meant it could concentrate on two core businesses - security printing and heating and bathroom products.
▪ To maintain a high quality exploration portfolio focusing on core business areas and under-explored prospective basins.
▪ Will it be able to manage an acquisition outside its core business -- one in no need of fixing?
counter-terrorist operation/team/unit etc
shoestring organization/operation etc
▪ The books give all the insider know-how for staying and getting around a country on a shoestring budget.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a big rescue operation
▪ a profitable data storage operation
▪ a throat operation
▪ Ask the surgeon how many times he has performed the operation before, and with what success.
▪ I had an operation on my knee last year.
▪ In a joint U.S.-Mexican operation, police arrested 28 people on charges of drug-smuggling.
▪ She runs one of the most powerful lobbying operations in Washington.
▪ Tell the mechanic to check the operation of the ignition system.
▪ the operation of the laws of gravity
▪ The doctor says I must have an operation.
▪ The new chip can process millions of operations per second.
▪ These are the lottery's worst results since its first year of operation.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As part of the rescue operation it left control of the banks with the minority shareholders.
▪ Chris Miller is the operations supervisor for Fast Drains.
▪ He criticised the agency's surveillance operations, and alleged that it was incompetent.
▪ It's not known if the patrol which spotted the stolen car was part of this operation.
▪ One such initiative is that presented by the application of advanced expert systems to aircraft maintenance operations.
▪ Such procedures should aim to ensure efficient operation and the provision of fresh, clean air.
▪ The rules governing the operation of military housing covered 800 pages.
▪ Through a second group of functions, government supplements and modifies the operation of the market system.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Operation

Operation \Op`er*a"tion\, n. [L. operatio: cf. F. op['e]ration.]

  1. The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.

    The pain and sickness caused by manna are the effects of its operation on the stomach.
    --Locke.

    Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation, can never attain to perfection.
    --Dryden.

  2. The method of working; mode of action.

  3. That which is operated or accomplished; an effect brought about in accordance with a definite plan; as, military or naval operations.

  4. Effect produced; influence. [Obs.]

    The bards . . . had great operation on the vulgar.
    --Fuller.

  5. (Math.) Something to be done; some transformation to be made upon quantities or mathematical objects, the transformation being indicated either by rules or symbols.

  6. (Surg.) Any methodical action of the hand, or of the hand with instruments, on the human body, to produce a curative or remedial effect, as in amputation, etc.

    Calculus of operations. See under Calculus.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
operation

late 14c., "action, performance, work," also "the performance of some science or art," from Old French operacion "operation, working, proceedings," from Latin operationem (nominative operatio) "a working, operation," from past participle stem of operari "to work, labor" (in Late Latin "to have effect, be active, cause"), from opera "work, effort," related to opus (genitive operis) "a work" (see opus). The surgical sense is first attested 1590s. Military sense of "series of movements and acts" is from 1749.

Wiktionary
operation

n. 1 The method by which a device performs its function. 2 The method or practice by which actions are done. 3 The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral. 4 A planned undertaking. 5 A business or organization. 6 (context medicine English) A surgical procedure. 7 (context computing logic mathematics English) a procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands). 8 (context military English) A military campaign (e.g. ''http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation%20Desert%20Storm'') 9 (context obsolete English) Effect produced; influence.

Related phrases:
WordNet
operation

  1. n. a business especially one run on a large scale; "a large-scale farming operation"; "a multinational operation"; "they paid taxes on every stage of the operation"; "they had to consolidate their operations"

  2. a planned activity involving many people performing various actions; "they organized a rescue operation"; "the biggest police operation in French history"; "running a restaurant is quite an operation"; "consolidate the companies various operations"

  3. a process or series of acts especially of a practical or mechanical nature involved in a particular form of work; "the operations in building a house"; "certain machine tool operations" [syn: procedure]

  4. the state of being in effect or being operative; "that rule is no longer in operation"

  5. a medical procedure involving an incision with instruments; performed to repair damage or arrest disease in a living body; "they will schedule the operation as soon as an operating room is available"; "he died while undergoing surgery" [syn: surgery, surgical operation, surgical procedure, surgical process]

  6. activity by a military or naval force (as a maneuver or campaign); "it was a joint operation of the navy and air force" [syn: military operation]

  7. (computer science) data processing in which the result is completely specified by a rule (especially the processing that results from a single instruction); "it can perform millions of operations per second"

  8. process or manner of functioning or operating; "the power of its engine determine its operation"; "the plane's operation in high winds"; "they compared the cooking performance of each oven"; "the jet's performance conformed to high standards" [syn: functioning, performance]

  9. (mathematics) calculation by mathematical methods; "the problems at the end of the chapter demonstrated the mathematical processes involved in the derivation"; "they were learning the basic operations of arithmetic" [syn: mathematical process, mathematical operation]

  10. (psychology) the performance of some composite cognitive activity; an operation that affects mental contents; "the process of thinking"; "the cognitive operation of remembering" [syn: process, cognitive process, mental process, cognitive operation]

  11. the activity of operating something (a machine or business etc.); "her smooth operation of the vehicle gave us a surprisingly comfortable ride"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Operation (mathematics)

In mathematics, an operation is a calculation from zero or more input values (called operands) to an output value.

(Operations, as defined here, should not be confused with operators on vector spaces.)

Operation

Operation or Operations may refer to:

  • Scientific operation
  • Surgery, or operation
  • An operation (mathematics) in mathematics:
    • Graph operations
    • Unary operation
    • Binary operation
    • Arity
    • Operations research
  • In language, an operation is a word which represents a function (or instruction), rather than a term or name
  • In computer science:
    • an operation is performed on the basis of an instruction
    • Modulo operation
  • In military and intelligence:
    • Military operation, a military action (usually in a military campaign) using deployed forces
    • Operations (military staff), staff involved in planning operations
    • Combined operations, operations by forces of two or more allied nations
    • Operations room, the tactical center providing processed information for command and control of an area of operations
    • Special operations, military operations that are unconventional
    • Covert operation, an operation which conceals the identity of the sponsor
    • Clandestine operation, an intelligence or military operation carried out so that the operation goes unnoticed
    • Black operation, an operation that may be outside of standard military protocol or against the law
    • Sting operation, an operation designed to catch a person committing a crime, by means of deception
  • Business operations
    • Operations management
    • Manufacturing operations
    • Unit operation, a basic step in a chemical engineering process
  • Rail transport operations, the control of a rail system
  • Operations support system used in the telecommunications industry
  • Operation of law, a legal term that indicates that a right or liability has been created for a party
  • Anomalous operation, in parapsychology, a term describing a broad category of purported paranormal effects
  • Operation (game), a battery-operated game of physical skill
  • Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
Operation (game)

Operation is a battery-operated game of physical skill that tests players' hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. The game's prototype was invented in 1964 by John Spinello, a University of Illinois industrial design student at the time, who sold his rights to the game to Milton Bradley for a sum of USD $500 and the promise of a job upon graduation. Initially produced by Milton Bradley in 1965, Operation is currently made by Hasbro, with an estimated franchise worth of USD $40 million.

The game is a variant on the old-fashioned electrified wire loop game popular at funfairs around the United States. It consists of an "operating table", lithographed with a comic likeness of a patient (nicknamed "Cavity Sam") with a large red lightbulb for his nose. In the surface are a number of openings, which reveal cavities filled with fictional and humorously named ailments made of plastic. The general gameplay requires players to remove these plastic ailments with a pair of tweezers without touching the edge of the cavity opening.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "operation".

On examination, we found a very varicose or enlarged condition of the left spermatic veins, and gave it as our opinion that the seminal loss was wholly due to this abnormal condition and could only be cured by an operation that would remove the varicocele.

The secrecy surrounding his operations meant that he must keep it aboard, since only in his cabin was the money safe from awkward questions.

Symptoms of perivesical abscess were present, and seventeen days after the operation, and fifty days after the introduction of the pencil, the patient died.

The accelerator should be ready for operation before 2010, and shortly thereafter supersymmetry may be confirmed experimentally.

Their skilful guide, changing his plan of operations, then conducted the army by a longer circuit, but through a fertile territory, towards the head of the Euphrates, where the infant river is reduced to a shallow and accessible stream.

The braziers began giving off a thick, resinous, overly sweet smoke with something astringent to it but I had no way of knowing if it was, in fact, the perfume the grimoire had specified for operations ruled by the planet Mercury: a mixture of mastic, frankincense, cinquefoil, achates, and the dried and powdered brains of a fox.

The yeoman keyed up the proper addressee and transmitted the message by dedicated landline to COMSUBLANT Operations, half a mile away.

Matter, by the faculties of the Soul that operate and by the nature of their operation, whether seeing, acting, or merely admitting impression.

Much as he disliked to interfere with the operation of the aeroplane, the young officer felt that it was necessary that some means should be taken to compel Mortlake to reduce speed.

A gang of men, pretending to be agitators, bomb or burn every, factory and mine which attempts to start operations, and terrorize all men who want to go back to work.

And the aileron and rudder controls, and those which governed the pitch and tune of the rotor blades, by whose combined means the little gig could have been brought down to the surface, were out of operation.

Flying Officer Harry Darby was the bomb aimer in a 514 Squadron Lancaster, on his first operation.

As a student of military history, Mihajlovic found a fine irony in the fact that a medieval castle, a type of fortification long obsolete in an age of airmobile troops and nuclear weapons, could once again play a part in a modern military operation.

It was strange, that the entire ship was divided between these two officers, Alameda running the aft half with the engineering spaces, Crossfield responsible for the operation of the tactical half, the forward spaces with the torpedoes and electronic control and sensor areas.

On the way, Alameda turned around and smiled at him, and the expression on her face startled him so severely that he tripped on the step-off pad of the hatch to the special operations compartment tunnel, catching himself on the hatch opening.