disrupt

/dɪsˈrʌpt/

/dɪsˈrʌpt/

Other forms: disrupted; disrupting; disrupts

To disrupt is to interrupt or throw something into disorder. If you don't turn your phone off before a play, it might ring and disrupt the actors and the audience.

Disrupt goes back to the Latin root disrumpere, "to break apart." When you disrupt, you break someone's concentration, break up a routine, or break apart a system or order, as when bad weather disrupts the travel plans of people in airports. Even if your headphones keep the music in your ears only, singing out loud can disrupt those around you. A larger interruption would be if a war were to erupt. That would disrupt the peace of an entire region and its people.

Definitions of disrupt

1. verb

   make a break in
   synonyms: break up, cut off, interrupt

   types:

   cut, cut off

   cease, stop

   punctuate

   interrupt periodically

   break

   interrupt the flow of current in

   put aside, put away

   turn away from and put aside, perhaps temporarily

   break, intermit, pause

   cease an action temporarily

   barge in, break in, butt in, chime in, chisel in, cut in, put in

   break into a conversation

   burst in on, burst upon

   spring suddenly

   heckle

   challenge aggressively

   come in, inject, interject, interpose, put in, throw in

   to insert between other elements

   block, jam

   interfere with or prevent the reception of signals

   stop, stop over

   interrupt a trip

   take off, take time off

   take time off from work; stop working temporarily

   interject

   speak abruptly, especially as an interruption

   interrupt

   interfere in someone else's activity

   breathe, catch one's breath, rest, take a breather

   take a short break from one's activities in order to relax

   take five

   take a break for five minutes

   take ten

   take a ten minute break

   barrage jam

   jam an entire frequency spectrum

   point jam

   jam a narrow band of frequencies

   spot jam

   jam a single frequency

   blanket jam

   jam a broad spectrum of frequencies to affect all communications in the area except for directional antenna communications

   call

   make a stop in a harbour

   lay over, stop over

   interrupt a journey temporarily, e.g., overnight

   type of:

   break, break off, discontinue, stop

   prevent completion
2. verb

   throw into disorder
   “This event disrupted the orderly process”
3. verb

   interfere in someone else's activity
   synonyms: interrupt

   types:

   cut in

   interrupt a dancing couple in order to take one of them as one's own partner

   cut short

   cause to end earlier than intended

   type of:

   barge in, break in, butt in, chime in, chisel in, cut in, put in

   break into a conversation