Irrupt
[i-ˈrəpt]
Part of speech: verb
Origin: Latin, 19th century
1.
To enter suddenly or forcibly
2.
To become suddenly active
3.
Referring to a natural population, to expand suddenly in numbers due to a change in the natural balance
Examples of Irrupt in a sentence
"When I unscrewed the pipe, muddy water started to irrupt into the room."
"The declining frog population caused the number of mosquitos to irrupt over the following season."
About Irrupt
Two-hundred years ago, the continent of Australia had no local rabbit population. Then, in 1859, a settler named Thomas Austin released 24 rabbits onto his property to hunt. Within ten years, the population had irrupted so significantly, wreaking havoc on the local ecology along the way, that two million per year could be trapped or killed annually without having "any noticeable effect" on the population. Talk about a legacy for poor Thomas Austin.
Did you Know?
Irrupt is very close in sound and meaning to erupt, though only irrupt can mean to enter a room uninvited.
