disturbance

disturbance
    n 1: activity that is a malfunction, intrusion, or interruption;
         "the term `distress' connotes some degree of perturbation
         and emotional upset"; "he looked around for the source of
         the disturbance"; "there was a disturbance of neural
         function" [syn: {perturbation}, {disturbance}]
    2: an unhappy and worried mental state; "there was too much
       anger and disturbance"; "she didn't realize the upset she
       caused me" [syn: {disturbance}, {perturbation}, {upset}]
    3: a disorderly outburst or tumult; "they were amazed by the
       furious disturbance they had caused" [syn: {disturbance},
       {disruption}, {commotion}, {flutter}, {hurly burly}, {to-do},
       {hoo-ha}, {hoo-hah}, {kerfuffle}]
    4: a noisy fight [syn: {affray}, {disturbance}, {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}, {disturbance},
       {psychological disorder}, {folie}]
    7: electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb
       communication [syn: {noise}, {interference}, {disturbance}]
    

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]
    

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. 
    

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