disperse

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To spread out or scatter in different directions, or to make a group do so.

   Police asked the crowd to disperse and go home.

2. 2
   verb

   To spread something widely so it is no longer concentrated.

   The wind dispersed the seeds across the whole field.

Simplified etymology

Disperse entered English in the late Middle Ages from the Latin word family of spargere, “to sprinkle.” Its sense developed around scattering or spreading things widely.

From Middle French disperser, from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergō (“to scatter abroad, disperse”), from dis- (“apart”) + spargō (“to scatter”); see sparse.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary