verb, -persed, -pers⋅ing, adjective | 1. | to drive or send off in various directions; scatter: to disperse a crowd. |
| 2. | to spread widely; disseminate: to disperse knowledge. |
| 3. | to dispel; cause to vanish: The wind dispersed the fog. |
| 4. | Physical Chemistry. to cause (particles) to separate uniformly throughout a solid, liquid, or gas. |
| 5. | Optics. to subject (light) to dispersion. |
| 6. | to separate and move apart in different directions without order or regularity; become scattered: The crowd dispersed. |
| 7. | to be dispelled; be scattered out of sight; vanish: The smoke dispersed into the sky. |
| 8. | Physical Chemistry. noting the dispersed particles in a dispersion. |

dis·perse (dĭ-spûrs') v. dis·persed, dis·pers·ing, dis·pers·es v. tr.
[Middle English dispersen, from Old French disperser, from Latin dispergere, dispers-, to disperse : dis-, apart; see dis- + spargere, to scatter.] dis·pers'ed·ly (-spûr'sĭd-lē) adv., dis·pers'er n., dis·pers'i·ble adj. |
disperse dis·perse (dĭ-spûrs')
v. dis·persed, dis·pers·ing, dis·pers·es
To cause to separate and move in different directions; scatter.
To cause to vanish or disappear.