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.

Noun

(en noun)

The action of intervening; interfering in some course of events.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=October 29 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Fernando Torres was recalled in place of the suspended Didier Drogba and he was only denied a goal in the opening seconds by Laurent Koscielny's intervention - a moment that set the tone for game filled with attacking quality and littered with errors.}}

(US, legal) A legal motion through which a person or entity who has not been named as a party to a case seeks to have the court order that they be made a party.

An orchestrated attempt to convince somebody with an addiction or other psychological problem to seek professional help and/or change their behavior.