Search Result for "overture": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. orchestral music played at the beginning of an opera or oratorio;

2. something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows;
- Example: "training is a necessary preliminary to employment"
- Example: "drinks were the overture to dinner"
[syn: preliminary, overture, prelude]

3. a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of others;
- Example: "she rejected his advances"
[syn: overture, advance, approach, feeler]



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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


WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

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,
       overture, prelude]
    3: a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of
       others; "she rejected his advances" [syn: overture,
       advance, approach, feeler]


Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

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