perturb
pronunciation
How to pronounce perturb in British English:
UK [pəˈtɜ:b]
How to pronounce perturb in American English:
US [pərˈtɜrb]
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- Verb:
- disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed
- disturb or interfere with the usual path of an electron or atom
- cause a celestial body to deviate from a theoretically regular orbital motion, especially as a result of interposed or extraordinary gravitational pull
- throw into great confusion or disorder
Word Origin
- perturb (v.)
- late 14c., from Old French perturber "disturb, confuse" (14c.) and directly from Latin perturbare "to confuse, disorder, disturb," especially of states of the mind, from per- "through" (see per) + turbare "disturb, confuse," from turba "turmoil, crowd" (see turbid). Related: Perturbed; perturbing.
Example
- 1. And these greenhouse gases perturb the radiation balance of climate .
- 2. Why must you forever perturb me ?
- 3. They could perturb the system slightly to see how it changed .
- 4. They perturb good social order with their lie and propaganda .
- 5. A second , more active approach , would be to deliberately perturb the microbiome with antibiotics or other agents and analyze the possible impacts on health .