operator

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from Latin operātor, from operor (“work, labour”). Equivalent to operate + -or.

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. A surgeon; one who performs medical operations.

   “Oh, a very well-known man. He has a great reputation as an operator for peritonitis.”

5. The game of Chinese whispers.
6. A person who is adept at making deals or getting results, especially one who uses questionable methods.

   “Francis Urquhart: I think Lord Billsborough is starting to lose touch a bit. Tim Stamper: Shame. Used to be a hell of an operator in his day.”

7. A function or other mapping that carries values defined on a domain into another value or set of values in a defined range.
8. The administrator of a channel or network on IRC.
9. A symbol that represents a construct in a programming language and differs from a normal function in its syntax.
10. 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.”

11. A bus driver.
12. The company that operates a mine; often the same one that owns the mine.
13. A thief or charlatan.

    “Sir Ol. Sirrah! I got many a round Sum by it, when my Father wou'd not give me a Groat—Then, Sir, I was in with all the Top Gameſters, and when there was a fat Squire to be fleec'd; I had my Office among them too, and tho' I ſay it, was one of the neateſt Operators about Town.”

    “Hank was saying, "Lyssa showed me the screenshots of Nate's accounts, so we know he's helping himself to Nate's money every month. The guy's a real operator."”

14. A major criminal.

    “He started bleating to me this morning aboot being stretched on this hippy stalk. A fuckin waste of time. Big operators flooding the city with smack and three-quarters of the cunts we bang up are daft schemies or students with a wee bit of hash or a few pills for their pals.”

    “The second thing is that smart operators like Cocky are only in it for the (huge amounts of) money.”

15. Someone who is successful at pursuing women; a player.

    “I give credit to men who are great operators, as we once called them, with the girls. Once I was interviewing one of the most beautiful girls in the world in her suite at the Hotel Plaza. While she was busily denying to me that there was anything serious in her relationship with Warren Beatty, who should be barging into the next room of the suite with a lot of clothes being removed from another suite, but Warren Beatty?”

    “"Of course you're right, but the Baron is unfortunately a bit of an operator, if you know what I mean. He likes the ladies," said Salvatore with a wicked grin. "So he never gets in until two, sometimes even three in the morning, and that's because he goes dancing at the Mela; he's quite a playboy."”