Definition of Operate

Operate

To perform a work or labor; to exert power or strengh, physical or mechanical; to act.

To produce an appropriate physical effect; to issue in the result designed by nature; especially (Med.), to take appropriate effect on the human system.

To act or produce effect on the mind; to exert moral power or influence.

To perform some manual act upon a human body in a methodical manner, and usually with instruments, with a view to restore soundness or health, as in amputation, lithotomy, etc.

To deal in stocks or any commodity with a view to speculative profits.

To produce, as an effect; to cause.

To put into, or to continue in, operation or activity; to work; as, to operate a machine.

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Operate Quotations

Lenience will operate with greater force, in some instances than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have all of my conduct distinguished by it.
George Washington

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.
Oprah Winfrey

The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.
Andrew Jackson

The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent.
Sam Levenson

We operate under a jury system in this country, and as much as we complain about it, we have to admit that we know of no better system, except possibly flipping a coin.
Dave Barry

It is, after all, the responsibility of the expert to operate the familiar and that of the leader to transcend it.
Henry A. Kissinger

Maybe we can show government how to operate better as a result of better architecture. Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world.
Frank Lloyd Wright

We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.
R. Buckminster Fuller

Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time.
Timothy Leary

Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.
Baruch Spinoza

Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.
Wislawa Szymborska

I never think of myself as wise. I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence which I intend to allow to operate.
Harold Pinter

We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone.
John Abizaid

German and English firms operate internationally, while French firms do not. The only place where they all have work is in China. Anybody can sell himself in China!
Helmut Jahn

And the basis on which we agreed to operate with them involved a manifesto, where it states that we proceed from different ideologies and policies. One thing that we insisted on was that they should take an oath to reject racism and discrimination.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi

I am not the kind of leader who pontificates about what should be done - I don't operate on scenarios, and I am not a prophet.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi

No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude.
Rupert Murdoch

It's impossible to move, to live, to operate at any level without leaving traces, bits, seemingly meaningless fragments of personal information.
William Gibson

Whenever possible, I operate outside the system.
Andres Serrano

Each building has to be beautiful, but cheap and fast, but it lasts forever. That is already an incredible battery of seemingly contradictory demands. So yes, I'm definitely perhaps contradictory person, but I operate in very contradictory times.
Rem Koolhaas

It's rather naive, apart from being ethically objectionable, to assume that our investigators travel around the country with bags of money trying to bribe witnesses to lie on the witness stand. We just don't operate that way.
Jim Garrison

The prudent course is to make an investment in learning, testing and understanding, determine how the new concepts compare to how you now operate and thoughtfully determine how they apply to what you want to achieve in the future.
Dee Hock

Having played many roles of scientific intellect I do have an empathy for that world. It's been hard on me because flying the Enterprise for seven years in Star Trek and sitting in Cerebro in X-men has led people to believe that I know what I'm talking about. But I'm still trying to work out how to operate the air conditioning unit on my car.
Patrick Stewart

De Niro was a hero of mine. And Sean Penn. But I've realized I can't operate at that level of intensity. That's okay for movies. On TV, when you live with horror day in and day out, you have to protect yourself.
Christopher Meloni

That is to say, nature's laws are causal; they reveal themselves by comparison and difference, and they operate at every multivariate space/time point.
Edward Tufte

Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire.
William Godwin

The U.N. Population Fund has a maternal health program in some Cameroon hospitals, but it doesn't operate in this region. It's difficult to expand, because President Bush has cut funding.
Nicholas D. Kristof

Geraldo has been in Lebanon. He has done some excellent reporting out of there, and of course, we now know by virtue of the president's speech on Tuesday night that the terrorist organizations that operate in that area are now on the list.
Brit Hume

Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autonomy cannot be explained in terms of traditional logic because the most interesting parts of the work are non-verbal. They operate within the terms of the work, like any art.
Thom Mayne

Being a mother gives you an incredible feeling of empowerment, you think if I can go through such pain and that level of sleep and still operate and not be grumpy you can do anything. It can be quite scary, you can't function your brain, forget your vocabulary.
Anna Friel

More Operate Quotations

Operate Translations

operate in Afrikaans is opereer, loop, werk
operate in Dutch is functioneren, het doen
operate in Finnish is toimia
operate in German is eingeschaltet, bedienen
operate in Italian is funzionare, esercitare, servire
operate in Portuguese is funcionar, opere
operate in Spanish is gestionar, operar, funcionar
operate in Swedish is operera

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