Crossword clues for interrupt
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Interrupt \In`ter*rupt"\, p. a. [L. interruptus, p. p.]
Broken; interrupted. [Obs.]
--Milton.
Interrupt \In`ter*rupt"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Interrupted; p. pr. & vb. n. Interrupting.] [L. interruptus, p. p. of interrumpere to interrupt; inter between + rumpere to break. See Rupture.]
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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; as, to interrupt the remarks of anyone speaking.
Do not interrupt me in my course.
--Shak. To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of; as, the evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1400, "to interfere with a legal right," from Latin interruptus, past participle of interrumpere "break apart, break off," from inter- "between" (see inter-) + rumpere "to break" (see rupture (n.), and compare corrupt). Meaning "to break into (a speech, etc.)" is early 15c. Related: Interrupted; interrupting.
1957, originally in computers, from interupt (v.).
Wiktionary
n. (context computing English) An event that causes a computer to temporarily cease what it was doing and attend to a condition vb. To disturb or halt an ongoing process or action by interfere suddenly.
WordNet
v. make a break in; "We interrupt the program for the following messages" [syn: disrupt, break up, cut off]
destroy the peace or tranquility of; "Don't interrupt me when I'm reading" [syn: disturb]
interfere in someone else's activity; "Please don't interrupt me while I'm on the phone" [syn: disrupt]
terminate; "She interrupted her pregnancy"; "break a lucky streak"; "break the cycle of poverty" [syn: break]
Wikipedia
In system programming, an interrupt is a signal to the processor emitted by hardware or software indicating an event that needs immediate attention. An interrupt alerts the processor to a high-priority condition requiring the interruption of the current code the processor is executing. The processor responds by suspending its current activities, saving its state, and executing a function called an interrupt handler (or an interrupt service routine, ISR) to deal with the event. This interruption is temporary, and, after the interrupt handler finishes, the processor resumes normal activities. There are two types of interrupts: hardware interrupts and software interrupts.
Hardware interrupts are used by devices to communicate that they require attention from the operating system. Internally, hardware interrupts are implemented using electronic alerting signals that are sent to the processor from an external device, which is either a part of the computer itself, such as a disk controller, or an external peripheral. For example, pressing a key on the keyboard or moving the mouse triggers hardware interrupts that cause the processor to read the keystroke or mouse position. Unlike the software type (described below), hardware interrupts are asynchronous and can occur in the middle of instruction execution, requiring additional care in programming. The act of initiating a hardware interrupt is referred to as an interrupt request (IRQ).
A software interrupt is caused either by an exceptional condition in the processor itself, or a special instruction in the instruction set which causes an interrupt when it is executed. The former is often called a trap or exception and is used for errors or events occurring during program execution that are exceptional enough that they cannot be handled within the program itself. For example, a divide-by-zero exception will be thrown if the processor's arithmetic logic unit is commanded to divide a number by zero as this instruction is in error and impossible. The operating system will catch this exception, and can choose to abort the instruction. Software interrupt instructions can also function similarly to subroutine calls and be used for a variety of purposes, such as to request services from device drivers, like interrupts sent to and from a disk controller to request reading or writing of data to and from the disk.
Each interrupt has its own interrupt handler. The number of hardware interrupts is limited by the number of interrupt request (IRQ) lines to the processor, but there may be hundreds of different software interrupts. Interrupts are a commonly used technique for computer multitasking, especially in real-time computing. Such a system is said to be interrupt-driven.
Usage examples of "interrupt".
Interrupted suddenly, they looked toward the doorway before Abram could answer.
Tom interrupted to remark that Wings Dedham had a considerable reputation in experimental radio and electrical aids to flying.
He was interrupted by a heaving shock that made the underground dome dwelling shake like a light airboat in turbulence.
It was their intention to have proceeded farther that day, but their progress was interrupted by an affair between their Albanian guard and the primate of the village.
He kept on talking until Andi interrupted, claiming a need to move on.
Someone interrupted my satisfaction by grabbing me, so I slammed a foot into his head, then drove my other heel back into his face.
She had undone two buttons and the bandana belt around her waist when Ryder interrupted.
It went on that way, each sentence interrupted by cheers and applause, as Baraka told how the men had found out plans for a sneak Israeli attack on Lobynia with atomic pistols, and they set out deep into the heartland of Israel, even into Tel Aviv, and foiled the plan and laid much of that city waste before they were finally overwhelmed by the entire Israeli army.
Hugh seemed half annoyed at being interrupted all the time but half pleased that Barong was coming out of his shell.
I was going to ask him at Basrah and they interrupted us and I forgot?
Edward at Basrah when Mrs Clayton had interrupted by calling them in for drinks.
Fragments of Sanskrit and Bengali interrupted clear passages and crawled up the margins.
The silence was interrupted only by a chirping cricket somewhere in the distant brush, and the disciple remembered the hours he had spent in a similar posture listening for the footsteps of the Baptist returning from his solitude to the Bethabara cave.
He found Kelford there, and the billiard fiend proposed that they resume the interrupted game of the night before.
Hearing the clatter of billiard balls, Weston hurried into the adjoining room to interrupt those experts Cranston and Kelford, in the middle of a match.