▪ I. operating, vbl. n.
(ˈɒpəreɪtɪŋ)
[f. operate + -ing1.]
a. The action of the vb. operate; an instance of this, an operation.
| 1674 R. Godfrey Inj. & Ab. Physic 39 After long, tedious, and chargeable Operatings to no purpose, he pulls down his Laboratory. 1913 Roberts & Smith (title) Practical locomotive operating. |
b. attrib. and
Comb., as
operating altitude,
operating box,
operating control,
operating costs,
operating expenses,
operating height,
operating revenue,
operating room;
operating crew (see
quot.);
operating system Computers, a set of programs for organizing the resources and activities of a computer;
operating-table (see
quot.);
operating-theatre, a room constructed for surgical operations before a class.
| 1956 D. E. Charlwood No Moon Tonight 15 Where the planes were circling, climbing steadily to *operating altitude. |
| 1918 ‘Q’ Foe-Farrell 117, I..found..the *operating box and the gallery, switched on the lights, and shinned down a pillar to the stalls. |
| 1930 Daily Express 6 Sept. 5/5 The ‘*operating control’ can be readily grasped from the sketch. |
| 1913 Roberts & Smith Pract. Locomotive Operating 26 *Operating costs. 1972 Lebende Sprachen XVII. 34/1 US operating costs, operating expenses—BE working expenses. 1975 ‘D. Jordan’ Black Account xi. 54 Condon said, ‘Let's settle the totals like this, then,’ and wrote... Initial operating costs and interest: $85 million. |
| 1965 *Operating crew [see flight crew s.v. flight n.1 15]. |
| 1869 Bradshaw's Railway Manual XXI. 417 The *operating expenses are about 51 per cent. of the gross earnings. 1909 Daily Chron. 25 Feb. 3/5 At the same time the operating expenses had gone down from 67·9 per cent. of gross receipts in 1907 to 54·5 in 1908. |
| 1948 ‘N. Shute’ No Highway iv. 111 I'm prepared to shut down the inboard engines after climbing up to *operating height. |
| 1930 Daily Express 9 Sept. 10/2 *Operating revenues show a gain of about 40 per cent. at {pstlg}556,936, compared with {pstlg}389,518, and while profit on sales of securities is lower, the gross earnings have expanded by nearly {pstlg}80,000 to {pstlg}740,582. |
| 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 305 It is just in the *operating room..that the skill of the photographer comes into play. |
| 1961 Computer Jrnl. IV. 222 (heading) The Manchester University Atlas *operating system. 1963 Gregory & Van Horn Automatic Data-Processing Syst. (ed. 2) xii. 477 Operating Systems are programs that increase machine operating efficiency by controlling the compilation and execution of programs, supervising input and output operations, converting data from one medium to another, testing programs to debug them, and simulating the operation of one processor on another. 1973 D. U. Wilde Introd. Computing ii. 43 When a computer system is under the control of a monitor or operating system, the computer operator loads programs into the card reader, mounts tape reels onto tape drives, and removes results from the printer while the monitor schedules the work flow and keeps the CPU busy. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1562/1 *Operating-table (Surgical), one on which the patient is placed to expose prominently the portion to be operated upon. |
| 1861 Times 23 Aug., The weekly board of the hospital..will also provide a convenient *operating theatre. |
▪ II. ˈoperating, ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ing2.] That operates (in senses of the
vb.).
| 1808 Wellington Let. to Castlereagh 5 Sept. in Gurw. Desp. (1837) IV. 142 This army..would be the operating army against what I have supposed to be the French operating army. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 10 The operating force at A acting in the direction of A D. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 975 Both to the physician and the operating surgeon. 1904 Daily Chron. 16 July 7/3 The operating company is to take over the tunnel before the end of the month. |