Search the Dictionary

sical, mechanical, or moral. The pain and sickness caused by manna are the effects of its operation on the stomach. Locke. Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation, can never attain to perfection. Dryden.

The act of coöperating, or of operating together to one end; joint operation; concurrent effort or labor. Not holpen by the coöperation of angels. Bacon.

The act of upbraiding or taunting; a reproach; a taunt. [Obs.] Improperatios and terms of scurrility. Sir T. Browne

Agency; influence; production of effects. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

The act of hastening; haste. [Obs.] T. Adams.

To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a quality or attribute. Whately.

dy acts on another; the effect of power exerted on one body by another; agency; activity; operation; as, the action of heat; a man of action. One wise in council, one in action brave. Pope.

The state or quality of being active; nimbleness; agility; vigorous action or operation; energy; active force; as, an increasing variety of human activities. "The activity of toil." Palfrey.

A mode of arresting hemorrhage resulting from wounds or surgical operations, by passing under the divided vessel a needle, the ends of which are left exposed externally on the cutaneous surface. Simpson.

To perform the arithmetical operation of addition; as, he adds rapidly.

The operation of bringing all the parts of an instrument, as a microscope or telescope, into their proper relative position for use; the condition of being thus adjusted; as, to get a good adjustment; to be in or out of adjustment.

Of or pertaining to algebra; containing an operation of algebra, or deduced from such operation; as, algebraic characters; algebraical writings. Algebraic curve, a curve such that the equation which expresses the relation between the coördinates of its points involves only the ordinary operations of algebra; -- opposed…

In a state of action; in force or operation; unextinguished; unexpired; existent; as, to keep the fire alive; to keep the affections alive.

The act or operation of compounding mercury with another metal; -- applied particularly to the process of separating gold and silver from their ores by mixing them with mercury. Ure.

The act amputating; esp. the operation of cutting of a limb or projecting part of the body.

Characterized by, or connected with, insensibility; as, an anæsthetic effect or operation.

The art of operation of restoring lost parts or the normal shape by the use of healthy tissue.

A solution, the result of a mathematical operation; as, the answer to a problem.

urgical practice which insists upon a systematic use of antiseptics in the performance of operations and the dressing of wounds.

An anomalous state of refraction caused by the absence of the crystalline lens, as after operations for cataract. The remedy is the use of powerful convex lenses. Dunglison.