Meaning of OVERTURE
| Pronunciation: | | 'owvurchur
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | |
- [n] orchestral music played at the beginning of an opera or oratorio
- [n] a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of others; "she rejected his advances"
- [n] something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to employment"; "drinks were the overture to dinner"
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| | Synonyms: | | advance, approach, feeler, preliminary, prelude |
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| | See Also: | | inception, music, origin, origination, proffer, proposition, suggestion | |
| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | |
\O"ver*ture\, [OF. overture, F. ouverture, fr. OF.
ovrir, F. ouvrir. See {Overt}.]
1. An opening or aperture; a recess; a recess; a chamber.
[Obs.] --Spenser. ``The cave's inmost overture.''
--Chapman.
2. Disclosure; discovery; revelation. [Obs.]
It was he That made the overture of thy treasons to
us. --Shak.
3. A proposal; an offer; a proposition formally submitted for
consideration, acceptance, or rejection. ``The great
overture of the gospel.'' --Barrow.
4. (Mus.) A composition, for a full orchestra, designed as an
introduction to an oratorio, opera, or ballet, or as an
independent piece; -- called in the latter case a {concert
overture}.
\O"ver*ture\, v. t.
To make an overture to; as, to overture a religious body on
some subject.
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| Thesaurus Terms |
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| | Related Terms: | | advance, approach, asking price, avant-propos, bid, breakthrough, concert overture, curtain raiser, descant, dramatic overture, exordium, feeler, foreword, front matter, frontispiece, innovation, introduction, invitation, leap, offer, offering, operatic overture, overtures, postulate, preamble, preface, prefix, prefixture, preliminary, preliminary approach, prelude, premise, presentation, presupposition, proem, proffer, prolegomena, prolegomenon, prolepsis, prologue, proposal, proposition, protasis, submission, tender, tentative approach, vamp, verse, voluntary, Vorspiel |
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