operate

«operate» in Mova's school dictionary: to make it work or control it — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (operate, operates, operated, operating)

meaning for a pupil

1) To operate a machine is to make it work or control it. tree →

2) To operate means to work or run: The buses operate every ten minutes. tree →

3) A doctor operates when he or she cuts into a patient's body to fix something. tree →

4) To operate means to run a business or organisation. tree →

5) In old tales, to operate can mean to use magic or secret power to make something happen. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths, operations are adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing; you operate on numbers. In everyday life machines, lifts and trains operate. In hospitals surgeons operate. In safety lessons only adults should operate dangerous machines. Phrases: operate on (a patient), easy to operate.

examples

• Only an adult should operate the lawnmower. tree →
• The trains operate every fifteen minutes. tree →
• The doctor had to operate on her knee. tree →
• How do you operate this remote control? tree →
• The shop operates seven days a week. tree →
• The robot is operated by a computer. tree →
• Choose the right operation: add or multiply? tree →
• The bagpiper announced that he would operate that very evening when the moon rose. tree →

note

Regular verb. Nouns: operation (in maths: +, −, ×, ÷; in hospital: surgery), operator (the person who works a machine). Doctors «operate on» a person, not «operate» a person.

In the corpora

• A surgeon is a doctor who operates on the body.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «operate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.