operationnoun/ˌɒp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/

• 1

  The method by which a device performs its function.

  • It is dangerous to look at the beam of a laser while it is in operation.
• 2

  The method or practice by which actions are done.

• 3

  The act or process of operating (verb): agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.

  • the pain and sickness caused by manna are confessedly nothing but the effects of its operations on the stomach and guts.
  • Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation, can never attain to perfection.
• 4

  A planned undertaking.

  • The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.
  • The Katrina relief operation was considered botched.
• 5

  A business or organization.

  • We run our operation from a storefront.
  • They run a multinational produce-supply operation.
• 6

  medicinesciencesA surgical procedure.

  • She had an operation to remove her appendix.
  • This done, ſhe performs the very ſame Operation on the other Side of the Cock's Body, and there takes out the other Stone; then ſhe ſtitches up the Wounds, and lets the Fowl go about as at other Times, till the Capon is fatted in a Coup, which is commonly done from Chriſtmas to Candlemas, and after.
• 7

  computingengineeringhuman-sciencesA procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).

  • The number of operands associated with an operation is called its arity; an operation of arity 2 is called a binary operation.
• 8

  computingengineeringhuman-sciencesA procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).