operator (operator)

[= F. opérateur = Sp. Pg. operador = It. opera tore, Then the Operator told him the Operation [in Alchymy] would go on more succe fully if he sent a Present of Crowns to the Virgin Mary. N. Bailey , tr. of Colloquies of Erasmus, I. 406. (a) One who performs a surgical operation. (6) One who exercises power, labor, skill, or influence in the accomplishment of some end; one who manipulates something, or is engaged in carrying on a series of acts or transactions by which some intended result is to be reached: as, a telegraph- operator; a Wall-street operator; an operator in wheat. 2. In math., a letter or other character signifying an operation to be performed, and itself subject to algebraical operation: as, a vector operator. Hamilton i an operator, in math., the op erator IMG:content-1743.png:[blocks in formation]