disperse: Meaning and Definition of

dis•perse

Pronunciation: (di-spûrs'), [key]
— v., adj. -persed, -pers•ing,
—v.t.
  1. to drive or send off in various directions; scatter: to disperse a crowd.
  2. to spread widely; disseminate: to disperse knowledge.
  3. to dispel; cause to vanish: The wind dispersed the fog.
  4. to cause (particles) to separate uniformly throughout a solid, liquid, or gas.
  5. to subject (light) to dispersion.
—v.i.
  1. to separate and move apart in different directions without order or regularity; become scattered: The crowd dispersed.
  2. to be dispelled; be scattered out of sight; vanish: The smoke dispersed into the sky.
—adj.
  1. noting the dispersed particles in a dispersion.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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