Definition of "procedure"

procedure

/pɹəˈsiːd͡ʒə/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural procedures
1. A particular method for performing a task.
  Quotations
  One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
  2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891
2. A series of small tasks or steps taken to accomplish an end.
3. (uncountable) The set of established forms or methods of an organized body for accomplishing a certain task or tasks.
4. The steps taken in an action or other legal proceeding.
  Quotations
  Gracious procedures.
  1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball
5. (obsolete) That which results; issue; product.
  Quotations
  There is not any known Substance, but Earth, and the Procedure of Earth (as Tile, Stone, &c.) that yeeldeth any Moss or Herby Substance.
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
6. (computing) A subroutine or function coded to perform a specific task, but does not return a value.
7. (medicine) A surgical operation.