to stop someone from speaking or stop an activity for a short time, usually by speaking, making a noise, or causing a break
Please don’t interrupt while I’m explaining the rules.
A loud thunderclap interrupted the outdoor wedding ceremony.
✦ From Latin “interrumpere” meaning “break between” (“inter” between + “rumpere” to break).
in computing, a signal sent to a processor to temporarily halt what it is doing so it can deal with something more urgent
Pressing a key on the keyboard generates an interrupt that the CPU must handle.
Each device has its own interrupt line in the system’s hardware design.
✦ Adopted by computer scientists in the 1950s, extending the general verb meaning of stopping a process.
something that causes a stop or break in a process, conversation, or activity.
The phone ringing was an unwelcome interruption during the important meeting.
There were many interruptions from the audience during the speaker's talk.
✦ Mid-16th century: from French interruption or Latin interruptio(n-), from the verb interrumpere (see interrupt).
