Definition of "operator" in Anglais

noun

1. A person or organisation that operates a device, system, service, etc.

   • The drone crashed because of operator error.
   • The new bus operator has promised to improve the frequency of rural services.

2. A telecommunications facilitator whose job is to connect or otherwise assist callers.

   • To get an international line, you used to have to go through the operator.
   • I kept getting "number unobtainable", so I called the operator to find out what was going on.

3. A member of a military special operations unit.

4. (uncountable) The game of Chinese whispers.

5. (informal) A person who is adept at making deals or getting results, especially one who uses questionable methods.

6. (mathematics) A function or other mapping that carries values defined on a domain into another value or set of values in a defined range.

7. (computing) The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.

8. (computing) A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.

9. (linguistics) A kind of expression that enters into an a-bar movement dependency and is said to bind a variable.

   • In the sentence "What did Bill say he wants to buy?", "what" is an operator, binding a phonetically empty variable.

10. (transport) A bus driver.

11. (by ellipsis, mining) The company that operates a mine; often the same one that owns the mine.

12. (slang) A thief or charlatan.

13. (slang) A major criminal.

14. (slang, dated) Someone who is successful at pursuing women; a player.