disturb the peace

English

Verb

disturb the peace (third-person singular simple present disturbs the peace, present participle disturbing the peace, simple past and past participle disturbed the peace)

1. (law) To behave in an inappropriately violent, noisy, or disruptive manner in public.
   • 1939 July, “Pertinent Paragraphs: Port Victoria”, in Railway Magazine, page 67:

     The bare dozen passengers the station sees in a month do little to disturb the peace.

References

• “disturb the peace” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “disturb the peace” (US) / “disturb the peace” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “disturb the peace”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.