Definition of "interrupt"

interrupt

/ˌɪntəˈɹʌpt/

verb
third-person singular simple present interrupts, present participle interrupting, simple past and past participle interrupted
1. (transitive, intransitive) To disturb or halt (an ongoing process or action, or the person performing it) by interfering suddenly, especially by speaking.
  Quotations
  Do not interrupt me in my course.
  c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iii]
  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.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
2. (transitive) To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of.
3. (transitive, computing) To assert to (a computer) that an exceptional condition must be handled.
noun
plural interrupts
1. (computing, electronics) An event that causes a computer or other device to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition.