disrupt
verbadjectiveattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//dɪsˈɹʌpt//
- United Kingdom//dɪzˈɹʌpt//
- United Kingdom//dɪzˈɹʊpt//
To throw into confusion or disorder.
verb
- 1
To throw into confusion or disorder.
Hecklers disrupted the man's speech.
- 2
To interrupt or impede.
Work on the tunnel was disrupted by a strike.
The Glaswegians bore good-humouredly the mishaps which occasionally disrupted the services during the first month.
Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.
In the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic region, where 2°C warming has already occurred since 1950, the loss of coastal sea ice and permafrost is disrupting traditional Inuit hunting routines.
- 3
To improve a product or service in ways that displace an established one and surprise the market.
The internet makes it easier for leaner businesses to disrupt the larger and more unwieldy ones.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin disruptus, from disrumpo, commonly dirumpo (“to break or burst asunder”), from dis-, di- (“apart, asunder”) + rumpo (“to break”).
adjective
- 1
obsoleteTorn off or torn asunder; severed; disrupted.
Forms
- comparative
- more disrupt
- superlative
- most disrupt
- past tense
- disrupted
- past participle
- disrupted
- present participle
- disrupting
- third person singular
- disrupts
disrupt · To throw into confusion or disorder.
disrupted · Subject to disruption.dissolve · To terminate a union of multiple members actively, as by…dissolved · that has been disintegrated in a solvent