interrupt

1. 1

   To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.ambitransitive

   • A maverick politician repeatedly interrupted the debate by shouting.
2. 2

   To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.transitive

   • The evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.
3. 3

   To assert to (a computer) that an exceptional condition must be handled.transitive

   • The packet receiver circuit interrupted the microprocessor.

syn. interject · punctuate

ant. continue · resume

1. 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.