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perturb

per·turb

UK/pəˈtɜːb/ US/pəɹˈtɜɹb/ uncommon

verb

1.

disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed

  • “She was rather perturbed by the news that her father was seriously ill”
Synonyms
2.

disturb or interfere with the usual path of an electron or atom

  • “The electrons were perturbed by the passing ion”
3.

cause a celestial body to deviate from a theoretically regular orbital motion, especially as a result of interposed or extraordinary gravitational pull

  • “The orbits of these stars were perturbed by the passings of a comet”
4.

throw into great confusion or disorder

  • “Fundamental Islamicists threaten to perturb the social order in Algeria and Egypt”
Synonyms

Origin

From Late Middle English perturben (“to disturb (someone) mentally, disquiet; to cause disorder to (something), confuse; to hinder (something)”), from Old French perturber, and from its etymon Latin perturbāre, the present active infinitive of perturbō (“to confuse; to alarm, disturb, trouble, perturb”), from per- (intensifying prefix) + turbō (“to agitate, disturb, unsettle, perturb; to upset”) (from turba (“disorder, disturbance, turmoil”) (possibly from Ancient Greek τῠ́ρβη (tŭ́rbē, “confusion, disorder, tumult”), either from Pre-Greek, or Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- (“to agitate, stir up; to urge on, propel”)) + -ō (suffix forming infinitives of regular first-conjugation verbs)).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.