Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To throw into confusion or disorder.
  • transitive verb To interrupt or impede the progress of.
  • transitive verb To break apart or alter so as to prevent normal or expected functioning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To break or burst asunder; separate forcibly.
  • Torn from or asunder; severed by rending or breaking.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Rent off; torn asunder; severed; disrupted.
  • transitive verb To break asunder; to rend.
  • transitive verb to destroy the continuity of, usually temporarily.
  • transitive verb To interfere with or halt, especially by causing a lack of order.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To throw into confusion or disorder.
  • verb transitive To interrupt or impede.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a break in
  • verb throw into disorder
  • verb interfere in someone else's activity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin disrumpere, disrupt-, to break apart : dis-, dis- + rumpere, to break apart; see reup- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin disruptus, from disrumpere, commonly dirumpere ("to break or burst asunder"), from dis-, di- ("apart, asunder") + rumpere ("to break").

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Examples

  • But they decided to go ahead and what we call disrupt it in place.

    CNN Transcript Oct 21, 2005 2005

  • And this is my definition of disrupt: to degrade capacity to such an extent that security could be manageable by the ANSF.

    Obama’s Wars Bob Woodward 2010

  • It doesn't mean that we do nothing, but it means the kinds of thing we do are less designed to kind of disrupt, which is what we do today, by just putting into place a giant peace plan, and instead designed to kind of build the foundations of stability that over time, maybe even over a long time, will lead towards a general, peaceful evolution.

    unknown title 2009

  • It doesn't mean that we do nothing, but it means the kinds of thing we do are less designed to kind of disrupt, which is what we do today, by just putting into place a giant peace plan, and instead designed to kind of build the foundations of stability that over time, maybe even over a long time, will lead towards a general, peaceful evolution.

    unknown title 2009

  • And by "disrupt", he means "create gadgets that do the same thing for much lower prices".

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2012

  • Last week, top central bank official Subir Gokarn called foreign capital flows "a potential threat," and on Saturday the bank's governor Duvvuri Subbarao told a panel at the International Monetary Fund in Washington that India will intervene if volatile inflows "disrupt" the economy.

    Asian currency tensions simmer as dollar sinks By ERIKA KINETZ 2010

  • So who are the well organized, well funded, groups of people that keep showing up to "disrupt" the congresspeople during their dog and pony shows?

    Liberal groups launch town hall counteroffensive 2009

  • August 5th, 2009 12: 11 pm ET and libs didn't organize to "disrupt" Bush? phoenix86

    Democrats say Republicans staging town hall protests 2009

  • A spokesman for Waddell refused to comment beyond the firm's previous statement from May, in which the firm said it doesn't intend to "disrupt" markets through its trading.

    How a Trading Algorithm Went Awry Tom Lauricella 2010

  • Waddell didn't comment Friday beyond pointing to a May statement in which it said it doesn't intend to "disrupt" the market through its trading.

    Flash Crash Is Pinned on One Trade Kara Scannell 2010

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