Noun

(en noun)

A particular way of phrasing an idea.

A colloquialism or idiom.

A facial appearance usually associated with an emotion.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=9 citation , passage=Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.}}

(mathematics) An arrangement of symbols denoting values, operations performed on them, and grouping symbols.

(biology) The process of translating a gene into a protein.

(programming) A piece of code in a high-level language that returns a value.

Of a mother, the process of expressing milk.

Noun

(en noun)

The method by which a device performs its function.

It is dangerous to look at the beam of a laser while it is in operation .

The method or practice by which actions are done.

The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.

* John Locke

The pain and sickness caused by manna are the effects of its operation on the stomach.

* Dryden

Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation , can never attain to perfection.

A planned undertaking.

The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.

The ''Katrina'' relief operation was considered botched.

A business or organization.

We run our operation from a storefront.

They run a multinational produce-supply operation .

(medicine) a surgical procedure.

She had an operation to remove her appendix.

(computing, logic, mathematics) a procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).

(military) a military campaign (e.g. )

(obsolete) Effect produced; influence.

* Fuller

The bards had great operation on the vulgar.