debouch
/di'bautʃ/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To emerge or issue forth from a confined or narrow space into a broader, open area. This is the core meaning, often used for geographical features like rivers or streams flowing out of a constricted channel, or for military troops moving from a confined area like a defile, forest, or valley into open terrain.
- To come out; to discharge. It describes the action of passing from a narrower to a wider place.
Usage and Examples
- Verb:
- The small stream debouched into a wide, tranquil lake. (Describes a river emerging into a larger body of water.)
- After the narrow canyon, the river debouches onto the vast floodplain. (Describes a river flowing out of a constriction.)
- The soldiers debouched from the dense forest and formed ranks on the plain. (Describes troops moving from a confined space into open ground.)
Advanced Usage
- Debouchment (Noun): The act or process of debouching; the point where something debouches.
- The debouchment of the river created a fertile delta.
- Often used in formal, geographical, historical, or military contexts. It is not common in everyday conversation.
Variants and Related Words
- Debouchure (Noun): The mouth of a river or a pass; the outlet. This is a more specific geographical term.
- The debouchure of the Mississippi River is in the Gulf of Mexico.
Synonyms
- Emerge: To come out into view.
- Issue: To come out from a source.
- Emanate: To flow out from a source.
- Discharge: To release or send out (often for liquids).
- Pour forth: To flow out freely.
Antonyms
- Enter: To go or come into a place.
- Disappear: To cease to be visible.
- Converge: To move toward one point (the opposite of flowing out into openness).
Notes on Meaning
- The word strongly implies a transition from a constrained, narrow, or hidden state to an open, visible, or expansive one. This spatial contrast is central to its meaning.
- While the primary examples involve physical geography and troop movements, it can be used metaphorically in formal writing to describe anything emerging from confinement (e.g., ).
Verb
- pass out or emerge; especially of rivers
- The tributary debouched into the big river
- march out (as from a defile) into open ground
- The regiments debouched from the valley