Overture

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Overture \O"ver*ture\, [OF. overture, F. ouverture, fr. OF.
     ovrir, F. ouvrir. See {Overt}.]
     1. An opening or aperture; a recess; a chamber. [Obs.]
        --Spenser. "The cave's inmost overture." --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. Disclosure; discovery; revelation. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It was he
              That made the overture of thy treasons to us.
                                                    --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A proposal; an offer; a proposition formally submitted for
        consideration, acceptance, or rejection. "The great
        overture of the gospel." --Barrow.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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}.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Overture \O"ver*ture\, v. t.
     To make an overture to; as, to overture a religious body on
     some subject.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  overture
       n 1: orchestral music played at the beginning of an opera or
            oratorio
       2: something that serves as a preceding event or introduces
          what follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to
          employment"; "drinks were the overture to dinner" [syn: {preliminary},
           {prelude}]
       3: a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of
          others; "she rejected his advances" [syn: {advance}, {approach},
           {feeler}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  50 Moby Thesaurus words for "overture":
     Vorspiel, 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