nonoperative

English

Etymology

From non- +‎ operative.

Adjective

nonoperative (not comparable)

1. Not requiring or involving a medical operation or surgery.

   Synonyms: nonsurgical; medical (in a technical sense thereof)

   Antonyms: operative, surgical

2. Not operative, not operational; inoperative.

   Hyponyms: broken, broken down, out of order; inactive; mothballed

   Near-synonyms: nonfunctional, nonfunctioning

   • 1921, Henry Clifford Spurr, Ellsworth Nichols, Public Utilities Reports, page 710:

     The historical cost of the property which was estimated to become nonoperative was set forth by the Commission's engineers, in Application No. 4440, as $36,278.

   • 1951 January 12, An act to repeal Section 8352 of [...] the Revenue and Taxation Code, published by the California legislature in Assembly Bills, Original and Amended:

     ... occurring on or after the ninety-first day after adjournment of the 1951 Regular Session of the Legislature, at which time they shall become nonoperative unless extended by further act of the Legislature [...]

   • 1996, David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     The guide arms can rock forward into an operative position of their own or back into a nonoperative position. In the operative position a guide arm will contact lugs, but if either lugs or guide arms are nonoperative no contact will take place.

Related terms

• paraoperative
• perioperative
• postoperative
• preoperative

 

Noun

nonoperative (plural nonoperatives)

1. (uncommon) One who is not an operative (“employee or worker”).
   • 1916, Women in industry series, United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics, page 366:

     Practically 50 per cent of the female operatives are found in the two groups aged 15 to 19 and 20 to 24 years, while only 18.2 per cent of the female nonoperatives are found in these age groups.

   • 1919, Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, page 83:

     If they were less numerous among the nonoperatives it would be a reasonable assumption that the operative death rates were unfairly weighted by their greater relative number, and that a part at least of the operative excess was due to ...

   • 1972, James L. Price, Handbook of Organizational Measurement:

     [...] proportion of nonoperatives in total employment in all British manufacturing industries from 1948 to 1962.