Definitions for: Overture

[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"

Webster (1913) 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.

Synonyms: advance, approach, feeler, preliminary, prelude

See Also: inception, music, origin, origination, proffer, proposition, suggestion

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