perturb
To cause to be physically disordered or disturbedTo cause (something) to be physically disordered or disturbed; to cause confusion.
» Leonid was visibly perturbed by that.
Meaning
6 senses(transitive)To cause (something) to be physically disordered or disturbed; to cause confusion.
(transitive)To disturb (someone, their mind, etc.) mentally; to bother, trouble, upset.
disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed
(transitive)Of a celestial body: to modify the motion or orbit of (another celestial body) by exerting a gravitational force; hence (physics), to slightly modify (the motion of an object).
cause a celestial body to deviate from a theoretically regular orbital motion, especially as a result of interposed or extraordinary gravitational pull
(transitive)To slightly modify (a set of equations or their solutions), producing deviations from a simple, easily solvable problem, in order to find an approximate solution to a problem that is more difficult to solve or otherwise unsolvable.
(transitive)To influence (a process or system) so that it deviates from its normal state.
(intransitive)To bother, to disturb, to trouble.
Examples
6 sentencesLeonid was visibly perturbed by that.
I was more than a bit perturbed.
Bruno was standing there with a perturbing smile on his face.
Sami is perturbed about that.
Yanni is perturbed about Skura's lesbian relationship with Nuja.
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
From Late Middle English perturben (“to disturb (someone) mentally, disquiet; to cause disFrom Late Middle English perturben (“to disturb (someone) mentally, disquiet; to cause disorder to (something), confuse; to hinder (something)”), from Old French perturber, and from its etymon Latin perturbāre, the present active infinitive of perturbō (“to confuse; to alarm, disturb, trouble, perturb”), from per- (intensifying prefix) + turbō (“to agitate, disturb, unsettle, perturb; to upset”) (from turba (“disorder, disturbance, turmoil”) (possibly from Ancient Greek τῠ́ρβη (tŭ́rbē, “confusion, disorder, tumult”), either from Pre-Greek, or Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- (“to agitate, stir up; to urge on, propel”)) + -ō (suffix forming infinitives of regular first-conjugation verbs)).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
perturbs, perturbing, perturbed, perturbedSynonyms
68 synonymsAntonyms
6 antonymsWord family
19 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle