Noun
A person who operates a telephone switchboard.
A person who provides assistance in establishing a connection, or who provides information or takes messages via the telephone.
Source: en.wiktionary.orgTime plays tricks between here and home," said Mogget sepulchrally, frightening the life out of the telephone operator. Garth Nix
In both cases, this is a telephone operator at the destination who provides assistance solely to other operators on inbound toll calls; the ringdown operator nominally cannot be dialled directly by the subscriber. Source: Internet
Popular culture * Comedian Lily Tomlin frequently satirized the telephone industry (and the country's then-dominant Bell System in particular) with a skit playing the telephone operator Ernestine. Source: Internet
On a sunny afternoon in March 1928, 9-year-old Walter Collins disappeared after his mother, Christine, a telephone operator, gave him a dime to spend on admission to the theater near their Mt. Washington area home. Source: Internet
While having lunch in the park one day, a telephone operator named Marylou Curley caught his eye, and he caught hers. Source: Internet
The brassy telephone operator once brought groupies to Tomlin’s shows in the early years. Source: Internet