disperse

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
disperse /dɪˈspəːs/

▶verb

• 1 go or distribute in different directions or over a wide area.

• 2 (of gas, smoke, etc.) thin out and disappear.

• 3 Physics divide (light) into constituents of different wavelengths.

▶adjective Chemistry denoting a phase dispersed in another phase, as in a colloid.

– derivatives
dispersal noun,
disperser noun,
dispersible adjective,
dispersive adjective.

– origin ME: from L. dispers-, dispergere ‘scatter widely’.