Definition of "operate on" []

• Perform surgery on (verb)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "While clinics usually operate on a sliding-fee scale and may provide access to top-notch practitioners who are in private practice elsewhere, your access to them will be limited and your time with them closely monitored."
• "He was one of the busiest medical officers in the Army, and he took the time, personally, to operate on an [u] [i] njured dog."
• "All heresies being now done away with us, these schismatists are merely atheists, differing from the material Atheist only in their belief that ` nothing made something, 'and from the material deist who believes that matter alone can operate on matter."