Definition of Operative

Operative

Having the power of acting; hence, exerting force, physical or moral; active in the production of effects; as, an operative motive.

Producing the appropriate or designed effect; efficacious; as, an operative dose, rule, or penalty.

Based upon, or consisting of, an operation or operations; as, operative surgery.

A skilled worker; an artisan; esp., one who operates a machine in a mill or manufactory.

Related Definitions:

Acting, Active, An, Appropriate, Artisan, As, Based, Consisting, Designed, Dose, Effect, Efficacious, Exerting, Force, Having, Hence, In, Machine, Manufactory, Mill, Moral, Motive, Of, One, Operation, Operative, Or, Penalty, Physical, Power, Producing, Production, Rule, Skilled, Surgery, The, Upon, Who, Worker

Operative Quotations

Assange is not a 'journalist' any more than the 'editor' of al-Qaeda's new English-language magazine 'Inspire' is a 'journalist.' He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.
Sarah Palin

The employee is regarded by the employer merely in the light of his value as an operative. His productive capacity alone is taken into account.
Leland Stanford

The two things I was positive about in life were that I was going to be a teacher at a boarding school or an operative with the CIA posted abroad. I could write a book about all the things I was sure about.
Tucker Carlson

Whatever life may really be, it is to us an abstraction: for the word is a generalised term to signify that which is common to all animals and plants, and which is not directly operative in the inorganic world.
Oliver Joseph Lodge

We mostly feel fearful because we feel powerless. We feel powerless, I contend, because of a style of thinking that splits information in two poles that makes us lose all the operative information we need to solve the problem.
Patricia Sun

Samurai culture did exist really, for hundreds of years and the notion of people trying to create some sort of a moral code, the idea that there existed certain behaviors that could be celebrated and that could be operative in a life.
Edward Zwick

I would like to see the day when somebody would be appointed surgeon somewhere who had no hands, for the operative part is the least part of the work.
Harvey Cushing

And I remember looking at Gray Davis and, you know, Gray is the consummate political operative.
Mike Curb

This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.
Ron Ziegler

More Operative Quotations

Operative Translations

operative in Afrikaans is werker
operative in Danish is arbejder
operative in Dutch is arbeider, werkman, werker, werkkracht
operative in French is ouvrier
operative in Portuguese is obreiro, operativo
operative in Spanish is operativo, obrero

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