interfere
Formsinterferes, interfering, interfered
- 1To involve oneself in a situation without invitation, causing disturbance or obstruction.
He refused to interfere in matters that did not concern him.
Government officials should not interfere with the work of independent courts.
Similarmeddle, intervene, intrude, tamper
Note
The everyday sense keeps a buried blow. Old French entreferir joined entre- with ferir, "to hit, to strike," from the Latin verb ferio. Its usual partner is with: one interferes with other people's affairs. The present participle also works as an adjective. Robert Frost's "The Axe-helve" (1923) gives it a literal edge, with an interfering branch of alder that catches the lifted axe from behind.
- 2A euphemistic verb for sexually molesting a person, especially a child.
The defendant was convicted of interfering with several children at the school.
Neighbors worried that he might interfere with the kids next door.
Note
A euphemism that depends on its preposition. It always takes with and often appears in the passive, as in the girls had been interfered with. The same construction also carries the ordinary meddling sense, so context decides which meaning is heard. With a person, especially a child, as the object, the sexual reading is the likely one. Careful writers choose another verb when only meddling is meant.
- 3Of two or more waves, to combine when overlapping or superposed so that their amplitudes reinforce or cancel one another.
Coherent light beams interfere to produce alternating bright and dark fringes.
Sound waves from the two speakers interfere, creating spots of near silence in the room.
Note
A physicist's use with a strict condition: only correlated waves interfere, while uncorrelated ones simply overlap without interfering. Overlap alone is not enough. The verb is intransitive and takes the waves themselves as subject (two beams interfere), unlike the meddling sense, where a person does the interfering. Radio signals show the practical result: where two stations interfere, the listener hears nothing but noise.
- 4Especially of a horse, to knock one foot against the opposite foot or ankle while walking or running.
Young horses sometimes interfere, knocking one ankle against the other as they trot.
If a horse continues to interfere, a farrier may adjust its shoes.
Note
A word from the stable, used mostly of horses. It is the one sense that still delivers the literal blow behind the meddling sense's Old French ancestor, "to hit, to strike." Here a hoof strikes the opposite leg or ankle in motion. It often causes injury, and farriers commonly correct it through careful trimming or shoeing.
Practice
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Origin
From Old French entreferir, formed from entre- plus ferir ('to hit, to strike'), which itself came from the Latin verb ferio.