in⋅ter⋅rupt
[v. in-tuh-ruhpt; n. in-tuh-ruhpt] 
| 1. | to cause or make a break in the continuity or uniformity of (a course, process, condition, etc.). |
| 2. | to break off or cause to cease, as in the middle of something: He interrupted his work to answer the bell. |
| 3. | to stop (a person) in the midst of doing or saying something, esp. by an interjected remark: May I interrupt you to comment on your last remark? |
| 4. | to cause a break or discontinuance; interfere with action or speech, esp. by interjecting a remark: Please don't interrupt. |
| 5. | Computers. a hardware signal that breaks the flow of program execution and transfers control to a predetermined storage location so that another procedure can be followed or a new operation carried out. |
1375–1425; late ME interrupten < L interruptus ptp. of interrumpere to break apart, equiv. to inter- inter- + rup-, var. s. of rumpere to burst + -tus ptp. suffix; see rupture
Related forms:
1, 3. intermit. Interrupt, discontinue, suspend imply breaking off something temporarily or permanently. Interrupt may have either meaning: to interrupt a meeting. To discontinue is to stop or leave off, often permanently: to discontinue a building program. To suspend is to break off relations, operations, proceedings, privileges, etc., for a certain period of time, usually with the stipulation that they will be resumed at a stated time: to suspend operations during a strike.
1, 2. continue.
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| in·ter·rupt (ĭn'tə-rŭpt') v. in·ter·rupt·ed, in·ter·rupt·ing, in·ter·rupts v. tr.
To break in on an action or discourse. n. Computer Science
[Middle English interrupten, from Old French interrupte, interrupted, from Latin interruptus, past participle of interrumpere, to break off : inter-, inter- + rumpere, to break; see reup- in Indo-European roots.] in'ter·rupt'i·ble adj., in'ter·rup'tion n., in'ter·rup'tive adj. |
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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.]1. 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 speaking. Do not interrupt me in my course. --Shak. 2. To divide; to separate; to break the monotony of; as, the evenness of the road was not interrupted by a single hill.Interrupt
In`ter*rupt"\, p. a. [L. interruptus, p. p.] Broken; interrupted. [Obs.] --Milton.Cite This Source
interrupt
1. [techspeak] n. On a computer, an event that interrupts normal processing and temporarily diverts flow-of-control through an "interrupt handler" routine. See also trap.
2. interj. A request for attention from a hacker. Often explicitly spoken. "Interrupt -- have you seen Joe recently?" See priority interrupt.
3. Under MS-DOS, nearly synonymous with `system call', because the OS and BIOS routines are both called using the INT instruction (see interrupt list) and because programmers so often have to bypass the OS (going directly to a BIOS interrupt) to get reasonable performance.
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interrupt programming
1. An asynchronous event that suspends normal processing and temporarily diverts the flow of control through an "interrupt handler" routine.
Interrupts may be caused by both hardware (I/O, timer, machine check) and software (supervisor, system call or trap instruction).
In general the computer responds to an interrupt by storing the information about the current state of the running program; storing information to identify the source of the interrupt; and invoking a first-level interrupt handler. This is usually a kernel level privileged process that can discover the precise cause of the interrupt (e.g. if several devices share one interrupt) and what must be done to keep operating system tables (such as the process table) updated. This first-level handler may then call another handler, e.g. one associated with the particular device which generated the interrupt.
2. Under MS-DOS, nearly synonymous with "system call" because the OS and BIOS routines are both called using the INT instruction (see interrupt list) and because programmers so often have to bypass the operating system (going directly to a BIOS interrupt) to get reasonable performance.
[The Jargon File]
(1995-02-07)
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