[ad. L. abruptiōn-em breaking off, n. of action f. abrump-ĕre. See ABRUPT.]
1. A breaking off, an interruption, a sudden break (in a narrative, etc.). arch.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. ii. 69. Tr. O Cressida, how often haue I wisht me thus? Cr. Wisht my Lord? the gods grant? O my Lord. Tr. What should they grant? what makes this pretty abruption?
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., vi. 211. The pseudo-prophetical spirit … is also conjoined with alienations and abruptions of mind.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Cowley (1816), 40. Thoughts, which to a reader of less skill seem thrown together by chance are concatenated without any abruption.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, ii. 40. Sudden and total abruption of all intercourse.
2. A sudden snapping or breaking; the breaking away of portions of a mass.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 145. Effused by the abruption of the glasses.
1860. J. P. Kennedy, Horse Shoe Robinson, viii. 97. A cleft, which suggested the idea of some sudden abruption of the earth.
1866. Reader, 1 Sept., 767. The work of abruption, or hollowing out, during the embryonic state is little less active than that of secretion or building up.
1879. Bryant, Pract. Surg., II. 8. The removal of the softer kinds of polypi should always be by abruption.
