interrupt
verbnouncommon in dialogue
- //ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt//
To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.
verb
- 1
To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.
A maverick politician repeatedly interrupted the debate by shouting.
Do not interrupt me in my course.
One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
- 2
To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.
The evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.
- 3
To assert to (a computer) that an exceptional condition must be handled.
The packet receiver circuit interrupted the microprocessor.
Etymology
From Middle English interrupten, derived from Latin interruptus, past participle of interrumpere (“to break apart/off, interrupt”), from inter (“between”) + rumpere (“to break”).
noun
- 1
An event that causes a computer or other device to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition.
The interrupt caused the packet handler routine to run.
Forms
- plural
- interrupts
- past tense
- interrupted
- past participle
- interrupted
- present participle
- interrupting
- third person singular
- interrupts
interrupt · To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.
interruption · The act of interrupting, or the state of being interrupted.intersect · To cut into or between; to cut or cross mutually; to divide…intersection · The junction of two (or more) paths, streets, highways, or…