abrupt
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈbɹʌpt/
ipa: /æbˈɹʌpt/
rhymes: -ʌpt
Forms: form: more abrupt
form: abrupter
form: most abrupt
form: abruptest
Etymology: First attested in 1583. Borrowed from Latin abruptus (“broken off”), perfect passive participle of abrumpō (“break off”), formed from ab (“from, away from”) + rumpō (“to break”).
Senses: glosses: Broken away (from restraint).
examples: text: The party came to an abrupt end when the parents of our host arrived.
text: The cause of your abrupt departure.
ref: 1592, William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part I, II-iii:
text: There was something in this abrupt allusion to the treasured and hidden past, that at once shocked and silenced Norbourne. He was annoyed to find that his heart's sweetest secret was in the possession of one so little likely to keep it;...
ref: 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 76:
text: 'Is it a slickstone?' she asks, and Maren snorts, an abrupt sound, bringing her hand up to her mouth.
ref: 2020 January 28, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, The Mercies, →ISBN, page 130:
glosses: Without notice to prepare the mind for the event; sudden; hasty; unceremonious.
examples: text: With no great disparity between them in point of years, they were, in every other respect, as unlike and far removed from each other as two men could well be. The one was soft-spoken, delicately made, precise, and elegant; the other, a burly square-built man, negligently dressed, rough and abrupt in manner, stern, and, in his present mood, forbidding both in look and speech.
ref: 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 12.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 301:
synonyms: brusque
rude
uncivil
impolite
terse
brisk
glosses: Curt in manner.
examples: text: The abrupt style, which hath many breaches.
ref: 1641, Ben Jonson, Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter:
glosses: Having sudden transitions from one subject or state to another; unconnected; disjointed.
glosses: Broken off.
examples: text: The mazy-running brook
Forms a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high.
ref: a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:
text: To the north the towering scree-strewn slopes of Saddleback begin to draw nearer as we start the abrupt descent towards Keswick.
ref: 1961 October, ""Voyageur"", “The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 601:
glosses: Extremely steep or craggy as if broken up; precipitous.
examples: text: Root oblong, blackish, nearly the thickness of the little finger, often growing obliquely; abrupt at the lower end, so as to appear as if bitten off, furnished with long whitish fibres.
ref: 1839, William Baxter, British Phænogamous Botany, →OCLC:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: Suddenly terminating, as if cut off; truncate.
Synonyms: sense: precipitous
word: broken
sense: precipitous
word: rough
sense: precipitous
word: rugged
sense: without time to prepare
word: sudden
word: sudden
sense: uncivil
word: blunt
sense: uncivil
word: brusque
sense: without transition
word: disconnected
sense: without transition
word: unexpected
Derived terms: abrupt appearance
abrupt appearance theory
abruptic
abruption
abruptly
abruptness
nonabrupt
theory of abrupt appearance
unabrupt