Overture
['əʊvətj(ʊ)ə] or ['ovətʃʊr]
Definition
(noun.) orchestral music played at the beginning of an opera or oratorio.
(noun.) a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of others; 'she rejected his advances'.
Editor: Segre--From WordNet
Definition
(-) An opening or aperture; a recess; a recess; a chamber.
(-) Disclosure; discovery; revelation.
(-) A proposal; an offer; a proposition formally submitted for consideration, acceptance, or rejection.
(-) 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.
(v. t.) To make an overture to; as, to overture a religious body on some subject.
Inputed by Camille
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Proposal, offer, proposition.[2]. (Mus.) Orchestral introduction to an opera, oratorio, &c.
Checker: Lyman
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Prelude, advance, proposal, offer, invitation, lead, initiation
ANT:Inaction, undemonstrativeness, quiescence
Typist: Robinson
Definition
n. a proposal an offer for acceptance or rejection: (mus.) a piece introductory to a greater piece or ballet: a discovery or disclosure: the method in Presbyterian usage of beginning legislation and maturing opinion by sending some proposition from the presbyteries to the General Assembly and vice vers also the proposal so sent.—v.t. to lay a proposal before.
Checked by Keith
Examples
- Sherman paid no attention at all to the overture, but pushed forward and took the town without making any conditions whatever with its citizens. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- What was the overture to Guillaume Tell but a symphony under another name? Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Tom watched the little lady a great deal, before he ventured on any overtures towards acquaintanceship. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- They had no faith in electric lighting, and rejected all our overtures to induce them to take up the new business of making electric-light fixtures. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- I've had overtures made to me lately that I saw were treacherous, and I flung 'em back i' the faces o' them that offered 'em. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- But now, when he has made his overtures so properly, and honourably--what are your scruples _now_? Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- So he knuckled down, again to use his own phrase, and sent old Hulker with peaceable overtures to Osborne. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The shaking figure, unnerved and disjointed from head to foot, put out its two hands a little way, as making overtures of peace and reconciliation. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- But I resisted all these overtures, and sat there in desperation; each time asking him, with tears in my eyes, for my money or my jacket. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Each of the teachers in turn made me overtures of special intimacy; I tried them all. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- As the silence became painful I concluded to hazard a little conversation on my own part, as I had guessed that he was making overtures of peace. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- You won't tell us what overtures? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
Checked by Irving