disrupt
/dɪsˈrʌpt
/verb [with object]
1Interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem: flooding disrupted rail services...
- It only defers its end by disrupting the social event with which it begins.
- The contest became a target in 1970 when women protesters disrupted the event.
- Arrangements also have to be made for visitors to view it, without disrupting the daily activities of the embassy.
Synonyms
throw into confusion, throw into disorder, throw into disarray, cause confusion/turmoil in, play havoc with, derange, turn upside-down, make a mess of;
disturb, disorder, disorganize, disarrange, interfere with, upset, unsettle, convulse;
interrupt, suspend, discontinue;
obstruct, impede, hamper;
hold up, delay, retard, slow (down)
British informal throw a spanner in the works of
North American informal throw a monkey wrench in the works of
1.1Drastically alter or destroy the structure of: alcohol can disrupt the chromosomes of an unfertilized egg...
- Applying an irritant chemical to the membrane disrupts the ordered structure: the dye is released and the globular proteins undergo conformational changes.
- In the shaken solution - which disrupts spatial structure - the ancestral morph persisted solitarily.
- A hydronium ion, however, disrupts this structure because it can accommodate a maximum of three hydrogen bonds.
Synonyms
distort, damage, buckle, warp;
break open/apart, shatter, split, sever, cleave, split asunder
literary rend
archaic sunder, rive
Derivatives
disrupter
/ (also disruptor) noun ...- And the marchers need their own monitors to practice nonviolent discipline and contain any disruptors - who are, de facto, not misguided friends but opponents.
- Some business is better conducted, some plans better made, when there's no worry about journalists, disruptors, or even potential new recruits.
- The United States has also tinkered with dazzlers of its own, though its focus is apparently more on short-range disruptors that can be attached to rifles.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin disrupt- 'broken apart', from the verb disrumpere.
corrupt from Middle English:
Corrupt comes from Latin corrumpere ‘mar, bribe, destroy’, from cor- ‘altogether’ and rumpere ‘to break’. Also from rumpere are disrupt (Late Middle English) ‘break apart’; eruption (Late Middle English) a breaking out; interrupt (Late Middle English) ‘to break between’. See words at rut