Literary notes about Operate (AI summary)
The term "operate" is used in literature to capture a range of actions, both concrete and abstract. In some passages, it describes physical functions or mechanical processes—motors operating signals [1], devices being ready to operate [2], or even the precise operation required in surgery [3, 4, 5]. In military narratives, it signifies the execution of strategic maneuvers, with troops being organized to operate against adversaries [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. Philosophical and metaphorical texts employ the term to denote the subtle interplay of forces, whether natural, divine, or institutional, that co-operate to shape events [12, 13, 14, 15]. Additionally, the word can express how influences—ranging from emotional conditions to societal factors—initiate or modify behavior [16, 17, 18, 19].
- Wires lead from the cabin to motors situated at the points and signals, which they operate through worm gearing.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - The picture shows the roaster ready to operate, except for smoke pipe and power connections.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - Five patients were chosen from the hospital in Bath, upon whom to operate.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay - You must go into the hospital, there they will operate on you.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - If you don't want peritonitis to set in, we'll have to operate right away.
— from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis - Having that as a base of operations, troops could have been thrown into the interior to operate against General Bragg's army.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - To guard against this danger, Sherman left what he supposed to be a sufficient force to operate against Forrest in West Tennessee.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - General Corse, with as much of his brigade as could operate along the narrow ridge, was to attack from our right centre.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - We were now to operate in a different country from any we had before seen in Virginia.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - I went there to determine where Schofield's corps had better go to operate against Wilmington and Goldsboro'.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - The problem was to secure a footing upon dry ground on the east side of the river from which the troops could operate against Vicksburg.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - CLEINIAS: What is it? ATHENIAN: That God governs all things, and that chance and opportunity co-operate with Him in the government of human affairs.
— from Laws by Plato - Chance, and God, and the skill of the legislator, all co-operate in the formation of states.
— from Laws by Plato - And yet, as he adds, the true legislator is still required: he must co-operate with circumstances.
— from Laws by Plato - For does the hereditary factor deny the significance of the experience, is it not rather true that both operate together in the most effective way?
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Here was a change, and here were claims which could not but operate!
— from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - You cannot be made to see how the mere duration of the corpse on the shore could operate to multiply traces of the assassins.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe - At the outset, we merely have the topic; then we operate on it; and finally we have it again in a richer and truer way.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - Our idea is here precisely in that medium, which is requisite to make it operate on us by comparison.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume
