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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
disperse
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a crowd disperses/breaks up (=goes away in different directions)
▪ Seeing there would be no more entertainment, the crowd began to disperse.
disperse/break up a crowd (=make a crowd go away in different directions)
▪ A few warning shots were fired in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
geographically
▪ There are obviously more overheads when the client group is geographically dispersed rather than grouped together in a home.
▪ Teams are likely to be geographically dispersed and culturally diverse.
▪ To decentralise and geographically disperse political and economic power.
▪ On the contrary, far-flung, geographically dispersed organizations may remain centralized for some important business functions.
widely
▪ They are widely dispersed and are engaged in a wide variety of activities.
▪ When a user browses the Web, objects are retrieved in rapid succession from often widely dispersed servers.
▪ Such papers are widely dispersed at present, in specialist clinical, radiological, pathological, and epidemiological journals.
▪ The suspicions of some are also aroused by weekend get-togethers of Volunteers working in widely dispersed communities.
▪ At other times, the animals will disperse widely.
▪ When cash flows are widely dispersed, M 2 will be a large number.
▪ The widely dispersed suburbs proved less hospitable to party machines than the closely packed cities.
■ NOUN
crowd
▪ Then the crowd began to disperse slowly; silently.
▪ The crowd began to disperse and I was startled to realize it was over.
▪ Within minutes the crowd had dispersed, leaving the frontage of the Theater an der Wien unlit and deserted.
▪ As the firing commenced the crowd began to disperse.
▪ Thirty more minutes elapsed without any further progress before she and several others appealed to the crowd to disperse.
▪ The policemen within the plaza began warning the crowd to disperse.
▪ When the crowd was beginning to disperse.
▪ The crowd of bystanders dispersed, and even the demolition crew drove away before the dust had finished settling.
gas
▪ Several demonstrators were badly injured as police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd in Revolution Square last Saturday.
▪ On Aug. 24 Delhi police used tear gas to disperse demonstrating students outside Parliament.
group
▪ It was dispersed in terms of client groups.
■ VERB
begin
▪ Then the crowd began to disperse slowly; silently.
▪ The crowd began to disperse and I was startled to realize it was over.
▪ And then the assembly began to disperse.
▪ As the firing commenced the crowd began to disperse.
▪ The blanket of fog above their heads began to disperse, sparkling the mushroom-shaped domes with soft diamonds of moisture.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ National Guard troops were called in to disperse the crowd.
▪ Once the ambulance had left, the crowd began to disperse.
▪ One resident said the student protesters dispersed peacefully.
▪ The arrival of armed police made the students disperse.
▪ The crowd began dispersing as soon as the ambulance had driven away.
▪ The oil had been dispersed by chemicals sprayed on the water.
▪ Twenty five officers were injured when police moved in to disperse a crowd of 200-300 youths.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Federal troops were used to disperse a crowd that tried to storm the jail.
▪ He said those details include determining where and how firefighting and emergency medical equipment will be dispersed throughout the city.
▪ It was at this point that police initially peacefully and totally unsuccessfully, sought to persuade the protesters to disperse.
▪ People are being advised to stay away until the fumes have dispersed.
▪ Police dispersed the crowds with teargas, and tanks were stationed in the city.
▪ Such ambiguity is dispersed by the Maastricht Treaty.
▪ They dispersed a crowd of whites and seized weapons in the black section of town.
▪ Yet, Lee knew very well that supplies were always short and had to be dispersed carefully, often during battle itself.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Disperse

Disperse \Dis*perse"\, v. i.

  1. To separate; to go or move into different parts; to vanish; as, the company dispersed at ten o'clock; the clouds disperse.

  2. To distribute wealth; to share one's abundance with others.

    He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor.
    --Ps. cxii. 9.

Disperse

Disperse \Dis*perse"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dispersed; p. pr. & vb. n. Dispersing.] [L. dispersus, p. p. of dispergere to strew, scatter. See Sparse.]

  1. To scatter abroad; to drive to different parts; to distribute; to diffuse; to spread; as, the Jews are dispersed among all nations.

    The lips of the wise disperse knowledge.
    --Prov. xv. 7.

    Two lions, in the still, dark night, A herd of beeves disperse.
    --Cowper.

  2. To scatter, so as to cause to vanish; to dissipate; as, to disperse vapors.

    Dispersed are the glories.
    --Shak.

    Syn: To scatter; dissipate; dispel; spread; diffuse; distribute; deal out; disseminate.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
disperse

late 14c., from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergere "to scatter," from dis- "apart, in every direction" (see dis-) + spargere "to scatter" (see sparse). The Latin word is glossed in Old English by tostregdan. Related: Dispersed; dispersing.

Wiktionary
disperse

vb. 1 (context transitive intransitive English) To scatter in different directions 2 (context transitive intransitive English) To break up and disappear; to dissipate 3 (context transitive intransitive English) To disseminate 4 (context physics transitive intransitive English) To separate rays of light etc. according to wavelength; to refract 5 (context transitive intransitive English) To distribute throughout

WordNet
disperse
  1. v. distribute loosely; "He scattered gun powder under the wagon" [syn: scatter, sprinkle, dot, dust]

  2. to cause to separate and go in different directions; "She waved her hand and scattered the crowds" [syn: dissipate, dispel, break up, scatter]

  3. move away from each other; "The crowds dispersed"; "The children scattered in all directions when the teacher approached"; [syn: dissipate, scatter, spread out]

  4. cause to separate; "break up kidney stones"; "disperse particles" [syn: break up, scatter]

  5. cause to become widely known; "spread information"; "circulate a rumor"; "broadcast the news" [syn: circulate, circularize, circularise, distribute, disseminate, propagate, broadcast, spread, diffuse, pass around]

Wikipedia
Disperse

Disperse was a Christian Rock band from Southern Indiana that disbanded in 2004. The band was formerly known, with an adjusted roster, as "Stuff."

Usage examples of "disperse".

If it had been able to complete its skim around the sun, it would have soared back out to the cometary cloud, quickly cooling, the lovely coma and tail dispersing into the dark, to resume its aeonic dreaming.

The special rounds had dispersed airburst aerosols that congealed into vast translucent sheets.

And reports were just coming in from overhead imagery that the transports had unloaded the ZIL-85 antiair defense systems vehicles and that they were already being dispersed about the island, hidden under the canopy of trees in the interior.

Meanwhile, light shines from the sun and stars, and when dispersed through the Archaeus forms fire.

He remembered the Roman had left with Lady Alphina and Rufus as soon as the gathering dispersed.

Robotic defenders targeted the falling atomics, exploding them in the air and dispersing clouds of radioactive shrapnel.

With luck you might capture the hive, but mostly, spent and demoralized, the bees dispersed in the woods to die.

For the most part the crowd dispersed at evening but others would trek to Bethabara the next day.

Behind him the crowd was dispersing as one by one the other passengers made their way nervously back to their own cabins, looking uncomfortably around them as they went.

Journey to Calvary was dispersed, but it was some time, doubtless, between 1600 and 1644.

French Cameroons, and thereafter the ships and transports could be dispersed or return home.

He was told by his fellow officers that the screams of the crowd and the shrieks of the woman were due to the fact that General Ermolov, coming up to the crowd and learning that soldiers were dispersing among the shops while crowds of civilians blocked the bridge, had ordered two guns to be unlimbered and made a show of firing at the bridge.

In such actions, instead of two crowds opposing each other, the men disperse, attack singly, run away when attacked by stronger forces, but again attack when opportunity offers.

But it may be added, that should our own citizens, more enterprizing than wise, become desirous of settling this country, and emigrate thither, it must not only be attended with all the injuries of a too widely dispersed population, but, by adding to the great weight of the western part of our territory, must hasten the dismemberment of a large portion of our country, or a dissolution of the government.

But if, reverend Judges, you deem this equipoised, indifferent lanthorn to be indeed blameworthy for having shown in the same moment, side by side, the skull and the fair face, the burdock and the tiger-lily, the butterfly and toad, then, most reverend Judges, punish it, but do not punish this old man, for he himself is but a flume of smoke, thistle down dispersed-- nothing!