operate

verb8

1. •
   to work the controls of equipment or a vehicle so that it does what it should

   • Termokarstovoye is 250 km east of Tarkosale where Novatek operates a processing facility for its own onshore production. — 2009
2. •
   To perform a work or labour; to exert power or strength, physical or mechanical; to act.

   • Could someone explain how this meeting operates?
   • In this town, the garbage removal staff operate between six o'clock at midnight.
3. •
   To perform some manual act upon a human body in a methodical manner, and usually with instruments, with a view to restore soundness or health, as in amputation, lithotomy, etc.

   • The surgeon had to operate on her heart.
   • I'm being operated tomorrow.
4. •
   To produce an effect.
5. •
   To produce an appropriate physical effect; to issue in the result designed by nature; especially (medicine) to take appropriate effect on the human system.

   • The drug operates by facilitating the negative neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), resulting in the blocking of neural long-term potentiation. — 2010
6. •
   To act or produce an effect on the mind; to exert moral power or influence.

   • A plain, convincing reason operates on the mind both of a learned and ignorant hearer as long as they live. — 1720
7. •
   To bring about as an effect; to cause.

   • Strictures upon style, which are for the most part good, but time has operated a change in many respects even since he wrote. — 1830
8. •
   To deal in stocks or any commodity with a view to speculative profits.