Disturbance

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Disturbance \Dis*turb"ance\, n. [OF. destorbance.]
     1. An interruption of a state of peace or quiet; derangement
        of the regular course of things; disquiet; disorder; as, a
        disturbance of religious exercises; a disturbance of the
        galvanic current.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Confusion of the mind; agitation of the feelings;
        perplexity; uneasiness.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Any man . . . in a state of disturbance and
              irritation.                           --Burke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Violent agitation in the body politic; public commotion;
        tumult.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The disturbance was made to support a general
              accusation against the province.      --Bancroft.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Law) The hindering or disquieting of a person in the
        lawful and peaceable enjoyment of his right; the
        interruption of a right; as, the disturbance of a
        franchise, of common, of ways, and the like. --Blackstone.
  
     Syn: Tumult; brawl; commotion; turmoil; uproar; hubbub;
          disorder; derangement; confusion; agitation;
          perturbation; annoyance.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  disturbance
       n 1: activity that is an intrusion or interruption; "he looked
            around for the source of the disturbance"; "there was a
            disturbance of neural function" [syn: {perturbation}]
       2: an unhappy and worried mental state; "there was too much
          anger and disturbance"; "she didn't realize the upset she
          caused me" [syn: {perturbation}, {upset}]
       3: a disorderly outburst or tumult; "they were amazed by the
          furious disturbance they had caused" [syn: {disruption}, {commotion},
           {stir}, {flutter}, {hurly burly}, {to-do}, {hoo-ha}, {hoo-hah},
           {kerfuffle}]
       4: a noisy fight [syn: {affray}, {fray}, {ruffle}]
       5: the act of disturbing something or someone; setting
          something in motion
       6: (psychiatry) a psychological disorder of thought or emotion;
          a more neutral term than mental illness [syn: {mental
          disorder}, {mental disturbance}, {psychological disorder},
           {folie}]
       7: electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb
          communication [syn: {noise}, {interference}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  245 Moby Thesaurus words for "disturbance":
     abashment, ado, affray, agitation, all-overs, angst, anxiety,
     anxiety hysteria, anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern,
     anxious seat, anxiousness, apprehension, apprehensiveness, baffle,
     bafflement, befuddlement, bewilderment, bluster, bobbery, boil,
     boiling, bother, botheration, brawl, broil, brouhaha, bustle,
     cacophony, cankerworm of care, care, chagrin, chaos, churn, cloud,
     commotion, concern, concernment, confoundment, confusion,
     conturbation, convulsion, daze, derangement, dilemma,
     disarrangement, disarray, disarticulation, discombobulation,
     discomfiture, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertedness,
     disconcertion, disconcertment, discountenance, disharmony,
     dishevelment, disintegration, disjunction, dislocation, disorder,
     disorderliness, disorganization, disorientation, disproportion,
     disquiet, disquietude, disruption, distress, donnybrook,
     donnybrook fair, dread, dustup, ebullience, ebullition, eddy,
     effervescence, embarrassment, embroilment, enigma, entropy,
     excitement, fanaticism, fear, feery-fary, ferment, fermentation,
     fever, feverishness, fidgets, fix, flap, flummox, flurry, fluster,
     flutter, flutteration, fog, foment, fomentation, foofaraw,
     foreboding, forebodingness, fracas, fray, free-for-all, frenzy,
     fuddle, fuddlement, fume, furor, furore, fury, fuss, haphazardness,
     hassle, haze, helter-skelter, hubbub, hullabaloo, hurly-burly,
     hurry, hurry-scurry, incoherence, indiscriminateness,
     inharmonious harmony, inquietude, insanity, interference,
     interruption, intrusion, irregularity, jam, jitters, jumble,
     jumpiness, maelstrom, malaise, maze, melee, mess, misarrangement,
     misgiving, mist, moil, mortification, most admired disorder,
     muddle, muddlement, mystery, nerviness, nervosity, nervous strain,
     nervous tension, nervousness, nonplus, nonsymmetry, nonuniformity,
     outburst, overanxiety, pandemonium, passion, pell-mell, perplexity,
     perturbation, pickle, pins and needles, plight, pother,
     predicament, problem, promiscuity, promiscuousness, pucker, puzzle,
     puzzlement, quandary, racket, rage, rampage, randomness,
     restlessness, riddle, riot, roil, rough-and-tumble, roughhouse,
     rout, row, ruckus, ruction, ruffle, rumpus, scramble, scrape,
     seethe, seething, shindy, shuffle, shuffling, solicitude, stew,
     stir, storminess, strain, suspense, sweat, swirl, swirling, swivet,
     tempestuousness, tension, tizzy, to-do, trepidation, trepidity,
     trouble, tumult, tumultuation, tumultuousness, turbidity,
     turbulence, turmoil, twitter, unassuredness, unease, uneasiness,
     unquietness, unrest, unsettlement, unsymmetry, ununiformity,
     upheaval, uproar, upset, vexation, violence, vortex, whirl,
     wildness, yeastiness, zeal, zealousness
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  DISTURBANCE, torts. A wrong done to an incorporeal hereditament, by 
  hindering or disquieting the owner in the enjoyment of it. Finch. L. 187; 3 
  Bl. Com. 235; 1 Swift's Dig. 522; Com. Dig. Action upon the case for a 
  disturbance, Pleader, 3 I 6; 1 Serg. & Rawle, 298.