operator

Plural: operators

Noun

• One who operates a machine or system; a mathematical symbol.
• (mathematics) a symbol or function representing a mathematical operation
• an agent that operates some apparatus or machine
  • "the operator of the switchboard"
• someone who owns or operates a business
  • "who is the operator of this franchise?"
• a shrewd or unscrupulous person who knows how to circumvent difficulties
• a speculator who trades aggressively on stock or commodity markets
• A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc.
• A telecommunications facilitator whose job is to connect or otherwise assist callers.
• A member of a military special operations unit.
• The game of Chinese whispers.
• A person who is adept at making deals or getting results, especially one who uses questionable methods.
• A function or other mapping that carries values defined on a domain into another value or set of values in a defined range.
• The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.
• A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.
• A kind of expression that enters into an a-bar movement dependency and is said to bind a variable.
• A bus driver.
• The company that operates a mine; often the same one that owns the mine.
• A thief or charlatan.
• A major criminal.
• Someone who is successful at pursuing women; a player.

Examples

• I kept getting "number unobtainable", so I called the operator to find out what was going on.
• In the sentence "What did Bill say he wants to buy?", "what" is an operator, binding a phonetically empty variable.
• The drone crashed because of operator error.
• The letter ’S’ acts as a powerful operator on the Scrabble board, pluralizing words.
• The new bus operator has promised to improve the frequency of rural services.
• To get an international line, you used to have to go through the operator.

Synonyms

hustler, manipulator, wheeler dealer

Related Words

opera, operable, operand, operant, operate, operation, operational, operative, opus