perturbation
nounEtymology Borrowed from Middle French perturbation, from Old French perturbacion, from Latin perturbatio.
1
Agitation; the state of being perturbed.
- Reſtore your ſelues, vnto your temper, Fathers; / And, vvithout perturbation, heare me ſpeake: […]1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act IIII:
- But her mind had never been in such perturbation; and it needed a very strong effort to appear attentive and cheerful till the usual hour of separating allowed her the relief of quiet reflection.1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
2
A small change in a physical system, or more broadly any definable system (such as a biological or economic system).
- Natures that haue much Heat, and great and violent deſires and Perturbations, are not ripe for Action, till they haue paſſed the Meridian of their yeares: As it was with Iulius Cæſar, and Septimius Seuerus.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Youth and Age. XLII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, pages 247–248:
- Derived terms
- cosmological perturbation theory, perturbational, perturbation theory, photoperturbation, preperturbation, reperturbation, subperturbation
- Related terms
- perturb, perturbatory