Search the Dictionary

Power efficiently and forcibly exerted; vigorous or effectual operation; as, the energy of a magistrate.

s, the construction of lighthouses, etc., and, in time of war, supervises the engineering operations of the armies in the field.

The act or operation of clearing of knots, or of untying; hence, also, the solution of a difficulty. [R.] Bailey.

The operation of sewing up a rent in the intestinal canal.

The act or operation of eroding or eating away.

The operation of making an incision into the esophagus, for the purpose of removing any foreign substance that obstructs the passage. [Written also oesophagotomy.]

The operation of blanching plants, by excluding the light of the sun; the condition of a blanched plant.

The consequence of anything; the issue; conclusion; result; that in which an action, operation, or series of operations, terminates. Dark doubts between the promise and event. Young.

In old writers, the operations concerned in the removal of parts of the body.

Free, or released, from some liability to which others are subject; excepted from the operation or burden of some law; released; free; clear; privileged; -- (with from): not subject to; not liable to; as, goods exempt from execution; a person exempt from jury service. True nobility is exempt from fear. Shak. T is laid…

thing of the nature of an active faculty; to put in vigorous action; to bring into active operation; as, to exert the strength of the body, limbs, faculties, or imagination; to exert the mind or the voice.

The developed result of an indicated operation; as, the expansion of (a + b)2 is a2 + 2ab + b2.

Expeditious; quick; speedily; prompt. Nimble and expedite . . . in its operation. Tollotson. Speech is a very short and expedite way of conveying their thoughts. Locke.

e labor, and thought; to expend hay in feeding cattle, oil in a lamp, water in mechanical operations. If my death might make this island happy . . . I would expend it with all willingness. Shak.

something doubtful; esp., one under conditions determined by the experimenter; an act or operation undertaken in order to discover some unknown principle or effect, or to test, establish, or illustrate some suggest or known truth; practical test; poof. A political experiment can not be made in a laboratory, not determ…

Taught by use, practice, or experience, experienced; having facility of operation or performance from practice; knowing and ready from much practice; clever; skillful; as, an expert surgeon; expert in chess or archery. A valiant and most expert gentleman. Shak. What practice, howsoe'er expert In fitting aptest words to…

The act of expressing; expression; utterance; representation. [Obs.] An operation more divine Than breath or pen can give expressure to. Shak.

The removal by operation of a portion of a limb; particularly, the removal of a portion of a bone in the vicinity of a joint; the act or process of cutting out.

The act of operation of drying; evaporation or expulsion of moisture; state of being dried up; dryness. Sir T. Browne.

The operation of stretching a broken bone so as to bring the fragments into the same straight line.