debouche
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From French déboucher (“to unblock, uncork; to finish; to culminate”), from dé- (“un-”) + boucher (“to block, stop”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]debouche (third-person singular simple present debouches, present participle debouching, simple past and past participle debouched)
- (military, of a body of soldiers) To enter into battle.
- 1839, Mathieu Dumas, Memoirs of His Own Time[1], volume 2, page 192:
- he debouched by the great high road through the forest, in the rear of the Austrian and Bavarian armies, while General Moreau attacked in front.
- (hydrology, of a river or stream) To discharge into a larger body of water such as a lake or sea.
- 1829, Robert Chambers, History of the Rebellions in Scotland[2], page 57:
- He chose a place called Colmnakill, about six miles farther down the Spey, where a tributary stream, debouching into that river, gave him protection on one side