interrupt

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To break the continuity or uniformity of: Rain interrupted our baseball game.
2. v. To hinder or stop the action or discourse of (someone) by breaking in on: The baby interrupted me while I was on the phone.
3. v. To break in on an action or discourse.
4. n. Computer Science A signal to a computer that stops the execution of a running program so that another action can be performed.
5. n. Computer Science A circuit that conveys a signal stopping the execution of a running program.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To make a break or gap in; break the course or continuity of; hence, to break off; bring to a pause or cessation; hinder the continuation of.
2. To break in upon or disturb the action of; stop or hinder in doing something.
3. Gaping: spreading apart, as the sides of anything.
4. Irregular; interrupted.
5. Disturbed; interrupted.

Wiktionary

1. v. to disturb or halt an ongoing process or action by interfering suddenly.
2. v. computing To assert to a computer that an exceptional condition must be handled.
3. n. computing An event that causes a computer to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To break into, or between; to stop, or hinder by breaking in upon the course or progress of; to interfere with the current or motion of; to cause a temporary cessation of.
2. v. To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.
3. adj. obsolete Broken; interrupted.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. destroy the peace or tranquility of
2. v. terminate.
3. v. make a break in
4. n. a signal that temporarily stops the execution of a program so that another procedure can be carried out
5. v. interfere in someone else's activity