OPERATE in a Sentence

Learn OPERATE from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

343 example sentences for OPERATE, such as:

1. The lift doesn't operate properly.
2. I want to operate, but not as you think.
3. The rescue operation began on Friday afternoon.
4. The operation on the new born infant was a failure.
5. He needed an operation to close a nasty gash in his arm.

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 Meanings and Examples of OPERATE
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
operate
 v.  be in action or have an effect
 v.  cut a body open to fix an unhealthy or damaged part
Classic Sentence: (133 in 9 pages)
1  I thought that adoring him, watching him operate, would be enough.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVI
2  Remember, also, that the surgeon must operate from above, some eight or ten feet intervening between him and his subject, and that subject almost hidden in a discoloured, rolling, and oftentimes tumultuous and bursting sea.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 70. The Sphynx.
3  But leaving this hint to operate as it may with the phrenologists, I would merely assume the spinal theory for a moment, in reference to the Sperm Whale's hump.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 80. The Nut.
4  After surveying the ground, Snowball declared that this was just the place for a windmill, which could be made to operate a dynamo and supply the farm with electrical power.
Animal Farm By George Orwell
Context  Highlight   In Chapter V
5  Electricity, he said, could operate threshing machines, ploughs, harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders, besides supplying every stall with its own electric light, hot and cold water, and an electric heater.
Animal Farm By George Orwell
Context  Highlight   In Chapter V
6  It reminded him that unforeseen factors operate in the evolution of immortality.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 6: 1 The Inevitable Movement Onward
7  I want to operate, but not as you think.
Dracula By Bram Stoker
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XIII
8  Oh, but I must not forget, my dear friend John, that you loved her; and I have not forgotten it, for it is I that shall operate, and you must only help.
Dracula By Bram Stoker
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XIII
9  You had better go your round, and Dr. Van Helsing will operate.
Dracula By Bram Stoker
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXI
10  It was indeed but a passing trance, that only made me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 4
11  It is also to be said that their position enables them to operate changes with less effort and greater efficacy.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER V.
12  And once, alter such an operation, Scarlett found her in the linen closet vomiting quietly into a towel.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER VIII
13  But with the operation of what came to be known as the governor's "slander mill," the North saw only a rebellious state that needed a heavy hand, and a heavy hand was laid upon it.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LII
14  Kennicott had taken a patient to Rochester for an operation.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IX
15  Afterwards I wondered the less at this operation when I came to know of what fine steel the head of a harpoon is made, and how exceedingly sharp the long straight edges are always kept.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 4. The Counterpane.
Example Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
16  Interest groups have always been with us, but they used to operate within coalitions called the Democratic and Republican parties.
17  Some types of bike have brakes which you operate by backpedalling.
18  The gambler bought off the police and thus was able to operate freely.
19  The lift doesn't operate properly.
20  Aerators reduce the manure nitrogen content, require fairly high capital investment, and are expensive to operate and maintain.
21  They closed the restaurant because the paucity of customers made it uneconomical to operate.
22  The mainspring in a mechanical watch is the spring that stores energy of winding to operate the watch.
23  The cachet for Bitcoin is its desire to operate in a regulatory-free peer-to-peer environment.
24  The rescue operation began on Friday afternoon.
25  The operation will go ahead as soon as a suitable donor can be found.
26  They were also given the opportunity to do some operation.
27  He needed an operation to close a nasty gash in his arm.
28  An operation is beginning to try to save a species of crocodile from extinction.
29  The operation on the new born infant was a failure.
30  The boy needs a life-saving transplant operation.