Pronunciation (UK) IPA (key): /dɪˈspɜːs/ (US) IPA (key): /dɪˈspɜ˞s/ Audio (UK)(file) Hyphenation: dis‧perse Verb Plain form disperse Third-person singular disperses Past tense dispersed Past participle dispersed Present participle dispersing (transitive & intransitive) If a group disperses, it breaks up into individual pieces or items and spreads out. The police fired their guns to disperse the crowd.Wikiwand - on Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.