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Definition of "irrupt" [irrupt]

  • To break or burst in. (verb-intransitive)
  • Ecology To increase rapidly and irregularly in number: In the absence of predators, the island's rodent population irrupted. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "irrupt" in a sentence
  • "Can Brown and Darling keep their eye on the ball of a major banking crisis if one were to irrupt at a moment when opinion polls show things to be at nip and tuck stage?"
  • "* If attacks against Iran are to commence soon, then it makes sense to weaken those forces considered likely to irrupt in response to such an attack: Better to attack those forces first and separately, throwing them off balance and subjecting them to prolonged siege, thereby depleting their assets and revealing their larger weapon capabilities and stores, prior to an attack on Iran itself;"
  • "His "monstrous perpetration" was the most irreverent irregularity ever to irrupt among the blushing members of that canonical and conanical conclave, The B.S.I. But it was F."