adverb

• 1Suddenly and unexpectedly.

  ‘the film ends rather abruptly’

  More example sentences

  • ‘a drama about two young brothers who are abruptly abandoned by their father’
• 2In a rude or curt manner.

  More example sentences

  • ‘she barely conceals her irritation and speaks briefly and abruptly to the woman’
• 3Steeply; precipitously.

  ‘the forested terrain ascends abruptly’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Seaward of the road, the grassy slopes end abruptly in rugged cliffs pounded by waves.’
  • ‘These terminate abruptly to the northeast at a fault that offsets the thrust.’
  • ‘Coarse alluvial-fan sediments change abruptly basinward into lacustrine sediments.’
  • ‘The Codling Fault terminates abruptly against the Palaeozoic Welsh Massif.’
  • ‘Some grooves deepen and terminate fairly abruptly.’
  • ‘Little has been published about the stratigraphic age of this group, which is abruptly overlain by these limestones.’
  • ‘These dikes can change direction abruptly.’
  • ‘However, as the paraboloid becomes narrower, it tilts, then abruptly tumbles onto its side.’
  • ‘It is a ridge in the Serra do Divisor, which rises abruptly above a vast, level plain cloaked in tall forest.’
  • ‘On the side opposite to the river, the land rose abruptly toward the village.’