Crossword clues for operative
operative
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Operative \Op"er*a*tive\, n.
A skilled worker; an artisan; esp., one who operates a machine in a mill or manufactory.
One who acts as an agent of another, especially a detective or spy.
Operative \Op"er*a*tive\, a. [Cf.L. operativus, F. op['e]ratif.]
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Having the power of acting; hence, exerting force, physical or moral; active in the production of effects; as, an operative motive; operative laws.
It holds in all operative principles.
--South. Producing the appropriate or designed effect; efficacious; effective; as, an operative dose, rule, or penalty.
(Surg.) Based upon, or consisting of, an operation or operations; as, operative surgery.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"producing the intended effect," early 15c., from Old French operatif (14c.) or directly from Late Latin operativus "creative, formative," from operat-, past participle stem of operari (see operation). Weakened sense of "significant, important" is from 1955.
"worker, operator," 1809, from operative (adj.); sense of "secret agent, spy" is first attested 1930, probably from its use by the Pinkerton Detective Agency as a title for their private detectives (1905).
Wiktionary
a. 1 effectual or important. 2 functional, in working order. 3 Having the power of acting; hence, exerting force, physical or moral; active in the production of effects. 4 Producing the appropriate or designed effect; efficacious. 5 Based upon, or consisting of, a surgical operation or operations. n. 1 An employee or other worker with some particular function or skill. 2 A spy, secret agent, or detective. 3 A participant of an operation.
WordNet
n. a person secretly employed in espionage for a government [syn: secret agent, intelligence officer, intelligence agent]
someone who can be employed as a detective to collect information [syn: private detective, PI, private eye, private investigator, shamus, sherlock]
adj. being in force or having or exerting force; "operative regulations"; "the major tendencies operative in the American political system" [ant: inoperative]
of or relating to a surgical operation; "operative surgery"
relating to or requiring or amenable to treatment by surgery especially as opposed to medicine; "a surgical appendix"; "a surgical procedure"; "operative dentistry" [syn: surgical] [ant: medical]
effective; producing a desired effect; "the operative word" [syn: key]
(of e.g. a machine) performing or capable of performing; "in running (or working) order"; "a functional set of brakes" [syn: running(a), functional, working(a)]
Wikipedia
"Operative" may refer to:
- Political operative or campaign staff
- A member of a tactical unit
- The Operative, a character from the television series Firefly
- The Operative: No One Lives Forever, a 2000 video game
- Operative Media, an advertising company, founded 2000
- An adjective with various meanings, as used in, for example "'Relevant' is the operative word in this context."
Usage examples of "operative".
The entire armamentarium of electronic surveillance may be pressed into commercial service, along with armies of trained human operatives .
The UN report also identifies Bonaventure as the spider who weaves a web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers, and other operatives.
The idea of Imperial operatives or traitors having set the Rebels up for their first defeat could not be ignored and any investigation of such allegations would fall to General Cracken and his people.
She was his debriefer Davina Graham, a dedicated British operative who made her work her life.
In the third book other remedial measures, dietetic, manipulative, and even operative, are suggested.
Overlords, unthinkably great as it was and operative withal in a fashion utterly incomprehensible to us of Civilization, was combined with the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and drive, as well as with the scientific ability of the Eich, the results would in any case have been portentous indeed.
They got access to a cell phone belonging to Faik Nizami, an al-Qaeda operative based in Afghanistan.
Fay Stender was gunned down by an operative of Panther leader George Jackson.
Inasmuch as there seem to have been few survivors among Ultima Hora and the Beasley operatives, the suppression of the truth will be comparatively easy.
Gore, Johnny Keems, Dol Bonner, Sally Corbett were operatives used by Wolfe at various times.
One of the operatives she controlled in Baghdad had stumbled onto Isal Mana and passed his name to her.
Occupying was the operative word, since it was very unlikely that he was doing any work, his chief interest in life being to write poems of an originality so pristine that only Nevil himself could understand them.
One of my operatives was working on Omicron when the invasion occurred.
Although other interpretive decisions of federal courts are unavailable, many State courts, taking their cue from pronouncements of the Supreme Court as to the operative effect of the similarly phrased Fifteenth Amendment, have proclaimed that the Nineteenth Amendment did not confer upon women the right to vote but only prohibits discrimination against them in the drafting and administration of laws relating to suffrage qualifications and the conduct of elections.
Directorate operatives get reassigned, uprooted, their biographies rewritten, networks detached and reassembled.