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operation |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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, 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}. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: operation n 1: the state of being in effect or being operative; "that rule is no longer in operation" 2: 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" 3: an act or process or manner of functioning or operating: "the power of its engine determines its operation": "the plane's performance in high winds" [syn: {functioning}, {performance}] 4: a planned activity involving many people performing various actions: "the biggest police operation in French history"; "running a restaurant is quite an operation"; "consolidate the companies various operations" 5: (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" 6: a military or naval action (as a maneuver or campaign); "it was a joint operation of the navy and air force" 7: a therapeutic procedure with instruments 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: {surgical operation}, {surgical procedure}, {surgery}] 8: 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}] 9: the performance of some composite cognitive activity; an operation that affects mental contents; "the process of thinking"; "the act of remembering" [syn: {process}, {cognitive process}, {cognitive operation}, {act}] 10: 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}]
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