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An opening or aperture; a recess; a recess; a chamber. [Obs.] Spenser. "The cave's inmost overture." Chapman.

Covering; shelter; defence; hiding. Protected by walls or other like coverture. Woodward. Beatrice, who even now Is couched in the woodbine coverture. Shak.

A state of being released from coverture; freedom of a woman from the coverture of a husband.

Admission to sexual intercourse. During coverture, access of the husband shall be presumed, unless the contrary be shown. Blackstone.

t; approach made to gain favor, to form an acquaintance, to adjust a difference, etc.; an overture; a tender; an offer; -- usually in the plural. [He] made the like advances to the dissenters. Swift.

o do a thing; legal incapacity or incompetency. The disabilities of idiocy, infancy, and coverture. Abbott.

are to capture or assault; to lay wait for. [Colloq.] Bp Hall. -- To lay in for, to make overtures for; to engage or secure the possession of. [Obs.] "I have laid in for these." Dryden. -- To lay on, to strike; to beat; to attack. Shak. -- To lay out, to purpose; to plan; as, he lays out to make a journey.…

Copulation with, or coverture of, a female beast.

Offer; proposal; overture. [Obs.] More offertures and advantages to his crown. Milton.

Strictly: A band suitable for the performance of symphonies, overtures, etc., as well as for the accompaniment of operas, oratorios, cantatas, masses, and the like, or of vocal and instrumental solos.

introductory to a fugue, yet independent; -- with recent composers often synonymous with overture. The last Georgic was a good prelude to the Ænis Addison. The cause is more than the prelude, the effect is more than the sequel, of the fact. Whewell.

To write down in proper order and arrangement; as, to score an overture for an orchestra. See Score, n., 9.

ic poems" of Liszt. The term was formerly applied to any composition for an orchestra, as overtures, etc., and still earlier, to certain compositions partly vocal, partly instrumental.

reeper, under Virginia. [Local, U. S.] Beatrice, who even now Is couched in the woodbine coverture. Shak.