What is cycle stealing in operating system?

Cycle stealing is a technique used in multitasking operating systems where a process temporarily relinquishes control of the CPU to allow another process to execute. This approach helps improve system responsiveness and resource utilization by allowing high-priority tasks to run without fully preempting lower-priority tasks. The original process resumes execution once the higher-priority process completes or yields control. This method is particularly useful in real-time systems, where timely processing is essential.