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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
operator
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cruise line/operator (=company that provides cruises)
smooth operator (=someone who does things in a smooth way)
▪ George is a smooth operator.
tour operator
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ Here are the big time smooth operators.
▪ The group, Britain's biggest coach operator, employs 1,000 people and carries 12m passengers a year.
▪ The big fleet operators get the biggest discounts - putting the dealers under pressure to maintain higher prices for private buyers.
▪ I was able to sell out quite profitably to one of the bigger air-freight operators.
human
▪ Chemical engineering companies found that their very large complex expensive process plants could be controlled better by computer than by human operators.
▪ Some months ago, they stopped relying on human operators to do so.
▪ The unique feature of ergonomics is its emphasis on the characteristics of human operators and their relevance to the design of work.
▪ It is of the utmost importance that it is the mind of the human operator doing the selecting.
▪ Thus it follows that skill training is more generalised and generalisable and is better fitted to the overall role of human operators.
▪ Traditional methods of determining such risks have limitations: human operators can become tired and can be distracted.
▪ In these terms, the human operator is a particular sub-system.
▪ The human operator has very little or no control over the format or content of the output produced by the computer.
large
▪ Crime certainly pays for the largest private prison operator in the country.
▪ Continental has 346, 000 subscribers throughout the region and is the largest cable operator in Los Angeles.
▪ Verio is the world's largest operator of Web sites for businesses and a leading provider of comprehensive Internet services.
local
▪ For instance, long-distance and local telephone operators are laying new high-speed fiber optic links to the home.
▪ It has become such an attraction that local tour operators are beating a path to its door.
▪ The local operators manage the bread and butter chores of poster production and display, media buys and the like.
▪ He even finds himself giving out gardening advice to local radio operators from his car.
major
▪ Ski start: the major tour operators run learn to ski weeks which are especially useful for lone learners.
▪ Discussions are being held with a major cable operator.
▪ In addition, many major tour operators include tours of Far Eastern islands in their long-haul programmes.
▪ But major theater operators think Bay Area filmgoers may be ready to switch.
▪ Significant contracts were also undertaken for Total, Amoco, Marathon and other major operators.
mobile
▪ Dimension Data rose 4.1 per cent to R52.90 while mobile phone operator M-Cell jumped 76.6 per cent to R26.65.
▪ Specifically, the company licenses network diagnosis software to mobile handset operators and network operators.
▪ The popularity of text messaging has delivered an unlikely windfall for mobile phone network operators.
▪ But analysts said it could be a target for a media company, internet portal or mobile phone operator seeking content.
other
▪ When railway travelling commenced, Mr Wright was wiser than many other coach operators.
▪ What advantages will they and the other operators get out of it?
▪ Marathon and other operators were also undertaken during the year.
▪ They are unlikely to welcome other rail operators creaming off their business.
▪ Significant contracts were also undertaken for Total, Amoco, Marathon and other major operators.
private
▪ Will the investment in new wagons be justified by private operators or leasing companies given the uncertainty of the market?
▪ Crime certainly pays for the largest private prison operator in the country.
▪ Get private operators on the railway and everything will work just fine.
▪ The brief experience of Stagecoach, the only private operator running regular passenger services, has been mixed.
▪ Nearly all Britain's hazardous waste is handled by private operators.
▪ But private operators can turn profits only if prices rise radically and rapidly.
▪ One of them, set up by six private operators, runs 80 cinemas that meet international standards.
▪ Fifteen states have passed laws enabling private operators to run roads and railways: the state of Washington did so last month.
skilled
▪ A complex dedicated simulator can cost several million pounds and it needs its own crew of skilled operators.
▪ The skilled operator will aim for efficient performance.
small
▪ In that event, smaller operators stretched to meet margin calls might suffer.
▪ But it also is threatening the livelihoods of many small business operators in San Diego and elsewhere.
▪ Most active construction is coming from the smaller chains and operators like Quality Inns.
▪ The experience of those small business operators, shared with me in understandable confidentiality, is by no means unique.
▪ Plenty of small operators remain to be gobbled up by big ones able to meet the capital and research costs now required.
▪ Compared with the small operators they took over, the giant companies deal with a wide range of rubbish.
▪ On something of a buying binge lately and snapping up smaller cable operators, Cogeco is itself seen as a takeover target.
▪ At the same time, small operators have been disappearing.
smooth
▪ Behind the scenes ... chaos ... smooth operators ... and hairdressers everywhere.
▪ He was then a smooth operator.
▪ Here are the big time smooth operators.
▪ He may not look it, but he is a smooth operator.
■ NOUN
bus
▪ Raids on farms were also reported and public transport was paralysed in the capital, Lima, as bus operators withdrew services.
▪ Councillors have already held talks with the town's bus operators with a view to reducing the number of vehicles using the centre.
▪ Sparsity of population in some rural counties of Britain can create considerable problems for bus operators.
▪ It is intended that this be jointly developed by the Council, the Police and the Region's bus operators.
cable
▪ On something of a buying binge lately and snapping up smaller cable operators, Cogeco is itself seen as a takeover target.
▪ This constraint will fade over the next few years as more cable operators upgrade their systems and add more services.
▪ Continental has 346, 000 subscribers throughout the region and is the largest cable operator in Los Angeles.
▪ And cable operators are doing all they can to get the government to prevent phone companies from carrying video programming.
▪ Discussions are being held with a major cable operator.
▪ A cable system has two types of customers-advertisers and consumers who subscribe to a package of programming offered by the cable operator.
▪ Eye on People is struggling to persuade cable operators to carry it.
computer
▪ It wasn't musicians making music, it was computer operators.
▪ Susan was twenty-two, a computer operator in a large mirror company in an industrial park near their apartment.
▪ Now he's a computer operator with a firm of designers.
▪ Charman returned to Brighton and took several temporary jobs before finding permanent work as a computer operator with the Inland Revenue.
machine
▪ Originally from Ireland, he worked as a machine operator until he was 83.
▪ It was one thing to tell a machine operator he or she had no choice about being measured.
▪ At this stage the typical machine operator manipulated machine controls on the basis of data presented on instruments.
▪ They never discussed with machine operators or engineers how the equipment was maintained.
▪ A working-class housewife married to a machine operator declares: Housework is boring.
▪ The machine operator she replaced is unemployed and too old to be re-skilled.
▪ Example Alan employs Brian as a machine operator.
▪ The biggest jumps in participation rates were recorded by workers under age 44, minorities, machine operators and laborers.
network
▪ Specifically, the company licenses network diagnosis software to mobile handset operators and network operators.
▪ In theory, network operators could target consumers with advertising, but this would raise technical and privacy issues not easily resolved.
▪ Anite provides testing solutions for network operators, and has invested heavily in both acquisitions and research and development in this area.
▪ The fear of pending competition has forced network operators to spend heavily on upgrades.
▪ The popularity of text messaging has delivered an unlikely windfall for mobile phone network operators.
▪ At present, wide disparities remain among different network operators in terms of both efficiency and pricing.
▪ Aimed at network operators and telecommunications providers, the resulting products are intended to enable them introduce new value-added services and products.
▪ Standard Insurance Company, for example, placed students with employees ranging from lawyers to accountants to computer network operators.
phone
▪ Dimension Data rose 4.1 per cent to R52.90 while mobile phone operator M-Cell jumped 76.6 per cent to R26.65.
▪ But analysts said it could be a target for a media company, internet portal or mobile phone operator seeking content.
radio
▪ He began to receive messages purporting to come from his deceased friend, who had been a radio operator.
▪ Everybody was shook but especially the other radio operator and myself.
▪ If the radio operator kept his mouth shut, the transgression might not get to the ears of his superiors.
▪ Back at bomber command, the radio operator received the distress call.
▪ He even finds himself giving out gardening advice to local radio operators from his car.
▪ At 1.20 a.m. the ferry's radio operator sent out the first Mayday call.
switchboard
▪ One switchboard operator said that at this moment in time she didn't know.
▪ He went back to your hotel and had a very interesting chat with the switchboard operator.
▪ The switchboard operator rang an extension.
▪ He asked the switchboard operator to connect him with Whitely Prison and waited.
▪ Finally they informed me that they had a position open for switchboard operators.
▪ I'd ring them up to complain but I'd never get past the switchboard operator before it stopped working again.
▪ Nevertheless, Levi is offering Opto Plus a switchboard operator and plenty of free jeans.
telephone
▪ Omar had bribed the telephone operator to leave his office, but I did not trust him to stay away.
▪ I also remember talking to live telephone operators.
▪ He heard Mrs Hassock's voice from below - she was obviously responding to the telephone operator.
▪ Women worked as schoolteachers, secretaries, clerks or telephone operators.
▪ Former telephone operators fitted the bill perfectly - They're naturals' claimed Mr Irwin.
▪ For instance, long-distance and local telephone operators are laying new high-speed fiber optic links to the home.
▪ For example, customer enquiries and correspondence can be scanned into the computer system on receipt, or entered by the telephone operator.
▪ A high percentage of telephone operators are black, for example, but only a very small proportion of dental hygienists are.
tour
▪ Responsible tour operators have recognized the problem and are doing all in their power to stop it.
▪ Do not buy a policy from the wholesale tour operator from which you bought your trip.
▪ It would be no good us offering just tour operator packages.
▪ Need help in checking on the reliability of a travel agency or tour operator?
▪ And resorts, tour operators and shops can not afford to advertise if they are on the breadline.
▪ These should be confirmed with travel agents or tour operators.
▪ Euro Disney claims that one of its tour operators has sold 70 percent of its first three months of Euro Disney allocations.
■ VERB
allow
▪ To do that, however, you would have to allow the operators to advertise.
▪ The most significant thing about the system is that it allows the operator to lay out pages on the screen.
▪ Status would allow operators to see at a glance which items of safety-related equipment were in proper working order.
require
▪ It requires concentration by the operator but, again, I would not let the speaker do it himself.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a day-care center operator.
▪ a political operator
▪ a tour operator
▪ an elevator operator
▪ Dial "0" to get the operator.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ By the same token, cinemas had no operators, and so few halls remained open.
▪ Keith, a general operator at Associated Octel's plant in Ellesmere Port, is thrilled to see his brother back home.
▪ Life insurers and nursing home operators plot their own windfalls.
▪ The boat will then by put to the test by operators and their views canvassed.
▪ The system provides operators with detailed real-time analysis of the status of all of their fleets.
▪ When the end of the column was over the steel baseplate, the crane operator lowered it slowly into position.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Operator

Operator \Op"er*a`tor\, n. [L.]

  1. One who, or that which, operates or produces an effect.

  2. (Surg.) One who performs some act upon the human body by means of the hand, or with instruments.

  3. A dealer in stocks or any commodity for speculative purposes; a speculator. [Brokers' Cant]

  4. (Math.) The symbol that expresses the operation to be performed; -- called also facient.

  5. A person who operates a telephone switchboard.

  6. A person who schemes and maneuvers adroitly or deviously to achieve his/her purposes.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
operator

1590s, "one who performs mechanical or surgical operations," agent noun from operate (v.) or from Late Latin operator. Meaning "one who carries on business shrewdly" is from 1828. Specific sense of "one who works a telephone switchboard" (1884) grew out of earlier meaning "one who works a telegraph" (1847).

Wiktionary
operator

n. One who operates.

WordNet
operator
  1. n. (mathematics) a symbol that represents a function from functions to functions; "the integral operator"

  2. an agent that operates some apparatus or machine; "the operator of the switchboard" [syn: manipulator]

  3. someone who owns or operates a business; "who is the operator of this franchise?"

  4. a shrewd or unscrupulous person who knows how to circumvent difficulties [syn: hustler, wheeler dealer]

  5. a speculator who trades aggressively on stock or commodity markets

Wikipedia
Operator (mathematics)

An operator is a mapping from one vector space or module to another. Operators are of critical importance to both linear algebra and functional analysis, and they find application in many other fields of pure and applied mathematics. For example, in classical mechanics, the derivative is used ubiquitously, and in quantum mechanics, observables are represented by hermitian operators. Important properties that various operators may exhibit include linearity, continuity, and boundedness.

Operator (physics)

In physics, an operator is a function over a space of physical states to another space of physical states. The simplest example of the utility of operators is the study of symmetry (which makes the concept of a group useful in this context). Because of this, they are a very useful tool in classical mechanics. Operators are even more important in quantum mechanics, where they form an intrinsic part of the formulation of the theory.

Operator (biology)

In genetics, an operator is a segment of DNA to which a transcription factor binds to regulate gene expression. The transcription factor is a repressor, which can bind to the operator to prevent transcription.

The main operator (O2) in the classically defined lac operon is located slightly downstream of the promoter. Two additional operators, O1 and O3 are located at -82 and +412, respectively.

Operator

Operator may refer to:

Operator (computer programming)

Programming languages typically support a set of operators: constructs which behave generally like functions, but which differ syntactically or semantically from usual functions. Common simple examples include arithmetic (addition with +, comparison with >;) and logical operations (such as AND or &&). More involved examples include assignment (usually = or :=), field access in a record or object (usually .), and the scope resolution operator (often ::). Languages usually define a set of built-in operators, and in some cases allow user-defined operators.

Operator (linguistics)

In generative grammar, the technical term operator denotes a type of expression that enters into an a-bar movement dependency. One often says that the operator "binds a variable".

Operators are often determiners, such as interrogatives ('which', 'who', 'when', etc.), or quantifiers ('every', 'some', 'most', 'no'), but adverbs such as sentential negation ('not') have also been treated as operators. It is also common within generative grammar to hypothesise phonetically empty operators whenever a clause type or construction exhibits symptoms of the presence of an a-bar movement dependency, such as sensitivity to extraction islands.

Operator (sternwheeler)
Operator (band)

Operator is an American post-grunge band from Los Angeles, California, United States. The name Operator was used for a solo project created by Johnny Strong, an Actor/Musician/Martial Artist, who has appeared in movies such as Black Hawk Down, (2001) The Fast and the Furious (2001), Get Carter (2000) and The Glimmer Man (1996).

Operator (Motown song)

"Operator" is a Motown song recorded by Motown vocalists Mary Wells and Brenda Holloway. The Wells version was the b-side to her top ten hit, " Two Lovers" while Holloway's was issued as a single in 1965.

Operator (profession)

An operator is a professional designation used in various industries, including broadcasting (in television and radio), computing, power generation and transmission, customer service, physics, and construction. Operators are day-to-day end users of systems, that may or may not be mission-critical, but are typically managed and maintained by technicians or engineers. They might also work on a 24-hour rotating shift schedule.

Operator (extension)

Operator is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox web browser. It parses and acts upon a number of microformats, as well as validating them.

Operator lets the user access microformats through a number of methods, all of which are optional: a toolbar, a toolbar button, a status bar icon, a location bar icon, or a sidebar.

It has native support for several microformats:

  • adr (adr spec) (postal addresses)
  • hCard (contact/ address information)
  • hCalendar (events)
  • Geo ( geographic coordinates)
  • rel-tag

and is extensible, in that users can add new actions for the included microformats, or specify additional microformat recognition.

Operator was written by Mike Kaply of IBM. It forms the basis for Firefox 3's microformats API, allowing native support, but has no direct user interface, due to lack of consensus on the implementation in the GUI.

Operator (A Girl Like Me)

Operator (A Girl Like Me) is a song by Canadian pop/ rock singer Shiloh. It was released on September 23, 2008 as the debut single off her debut album Picture Imperfect (2009). The song is about staying true to oneself and not becoming superficial.

"Operator (A Girl Like Me)" peaked at number 30 on the Canadian Hot 100, making this her only top 40 hit on that chart. A music video by Aaron A. was made for the single and features a split screen that shows both Shiloh and another girl as they walk down in the same direction. A live version of the song performed at the 2009 MuchMusic Video Awards was released on iTunes on June 22, 2009. The song was certified Platinum by Music Canada, denoting sales of over 80,000 units in that country.

Operator (Midnight Star song)

"Operator" is a 1984 # 1 R&B/dance single by Midnight Star, produced by then-current bandmember Reggie Calloway. At the dawning of 1984, despite having achieved much success on the R&B chart and an extremely successful album, No Parking on the Dance Floor the previous year, Midnight Star had yet to make a big impression on the pop charts. However, "Operator" finally scored the band a significant pop hit. The single cracked the pop Top 20, peaking at number eighteen, and remains Midnight Star's only top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also their biggest hit on the R&B chart, hitting number one for five weeks in late 1984 and into 1985.

Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)

"Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" is a 1972 single written and recorded by Jim Croce. It was released August 23, 1972 and was the second single released from his album You Don't Mess Around with Jim. It reached a peak of 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1972 after spending twelve weeks on the chart.

Operator (play)

Operator is a play by David Williamson. Williamson's son Felix played the lead role during its original production.

Operator (Floy Joy song)

"Operator" (a.k.a. "Operator Operator") is a song by British group Floy Joy, which was released as the third and final single from their 1984 debut album Into the Hot. The song was written by band members Shaun Ward and Michael Ward. It was produced by Don Was, who also produced the band's entire debut album.

Operator (film)

Operator is an upcoming American drama film directed by Logan Kibens. It stars Martin Starr and Mae Whitman.

Usage examples of "operator".

Billy Anker mistrusted the shadow operators though he never would say why.

If Arra was right and the next opening of the gate would release more shadows into the world, Lee needed to be as far from the gate as possible-not standing underneath it chatting to the boom operator while Peter went over the reactions he wanted with Laura.

Private investigators, shady operators like the Boston realtor and the Campbell who had listed Auk House for sale or rent.

Somewhat rudely pushing the azimuth operator aside, Corporal Hart examined the glowing images on the display tube with the utmost care.

The azimuth screen was equally empty, its operator equally intent, having wholly forgotten sick mother, errant boy friend, and laddered stockings as she stared at the screen in front of her.

Room, Beery was standing at a telephone, jiggling the hook up and down savagely, yelling at the operator to trace the call.

The sun had hardly set on the twenty-sixth of November before the bogies began to appear around the edges of the scopes, many more of them than the radar operators remembered having seen before.

John Bonano, a telephone company executive, of his brief experience as an operator providing directory assistance.

The reactor operator, an aggressive first-class petty officer named Manderson, acknowledged and flipped each reactor main coolant pump T-switch on the lower reactor control panel to the slow speed position, then pulled each switch upward.

Father John told the operator to get a couple of cars--BIA, sheriff, somebody-out to the Cooley ranch fast.

Suppose that the cryptanalyst obtains the plaintext of a given cryptogram, perhaps through theft or the error of a radio operator.

Marn in force at eleven this morning, a party of myself, two female retriever operators, two retrievers and three armed guardsmen Van Deef hired to protect us.

Permanent cadre are Ks deniable operators on a salaried retainer not freelancers like me, called on to carry out shit jobs that no one else wants.

I knew from the look in his eyes that I was still lowlife, a K spy, a deniable operator carrying out shit jobs that no one else wanted to do.

Hundreds of thousands of technologically-savvy operators have joined the market in the last two years, as the dotcom bubble burst.