Sample Sentences for
overture
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

overture as in:  played the William Tell Overture

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The overture was already being played when they arrived.
overture = orchestral music played as an introduction to a longer piece
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    The stage was dark for a moment, and silent; then suddenly, with a burst of golden light and an orchestral overture from the CD player behind the curtain, Angel stepped onto the stage.  (source)
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    About fifty people, including a number of couples, were taking their seats amid the din of the recorded overture—a scratchy, fast-paced medley of Broadway tunes played at extremely high volume in order to drown out the disco beat from below.  (source)
    overture = music played as an introduction to a longer piece
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    Bod had listened to all kinds of music: the sweet chimes of the ice-cream van, the songs that played on workmen's radios, the tunes that Claretty Jake played the dead on his dusty fiddle, but he had never heard anything like this before: a series of deep swells, like the music at the beginning of something, a prelude perhaps, or an overture.  (source)
    overture = orchestral music played as an introduction to a longer piece
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    Even the very same song, the 1812 Overture, hummed through the PA speakers—Rosewood played between-classes music because it was "mentally stimulating."  (source)
    Overture = orchestral music played as an introduction to a longer piece
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    There were a lot of overtures and single movements from the world of lofty symphonies, played by famous orchestras under well-known directors.  (source)
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    He lowered the lid, and in the same moment from between the louvers at the open double doors—no, from the whole chest itself—a bustling, merry instrumental din burst forth, an insistent noisy melody, the first bars of a toe-tapping Offenbach overture.  (source)
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    From the treasury of disks, he assembled a special album, a collection of light favorites, dances, short overtures, and other such folderol, which he made available to them and which admirably served the purpose, since Elly had no need of more sublime tones.  (source)
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    They played a duet from "Zampa," and at the earnest solicitation of every one present followed it with the overture to "The Poet and the Peasant."  (source)
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    AN OVERTURE†  (source)
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    I did not seek her out, knowing that any gesture begun in love inevitably turned to poison; every good speech, every clean overture, died on the air.†  (source)
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    Those guns had come from the Presger, the Garseddai had dealt with the aliens, whoever had made the first overture.†  (source)
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    The record contained the many overtures from Rossini's operas, including the most well-known The William Tell Overture.†  (source)
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    In combination with the overture, the weak and dream-like blue, the clouds of dark green that marked the tops of the trees, and the motile and confusing shadows, several forms of art kept the students as quiet as the dead.†  (source)
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overture as in:  she made an overture

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She rejected his overture to be more than friends.
overture = tentative suggestion (designed with the hope of leading to something more substantial)
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    My friendly overture had fallen flat.  (source)
    overture = attempt to start a friendly conversation
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    But now, when he has made his overtures so properly, and honourably—what are your scruples now?  (source)
    overtures = offers or suggestions
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    Rabban has sent cautious overtures about a truce.†  (source)
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    But these overtures are dismissed by Zalmai unceremoniously, sometimes venomously.†  (source)
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    The record contained the many overtures from Rossini's operas, including the most well-known The William Tell Overture.†  (source)
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    Concertos are these tapestries, and all the other bolts of cloth are serenades, waltzes, overtures, and rhapsodies.†  (source)
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    For comfort, he made overtures to the honeycolored cat which lay on the sunny window sill in the front hall.†  (source)
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    Amy was much offended that her overtures of peace had been repulsed, and began to wish she had not humbled herself, to feel more injured than ever, and to plume herself on her superior virtue in a way which was particularly exasperating.†  (source)
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    He turned away, and met all my subsequent overtures with silence.†  (source)
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    Karenin jumped all over him, so it was a while before they had to make any overtures to each other.†  (source)
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    No, he made his black overtures only when I gave off a scent of frailty and weakness.†  (source)
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    It was clear that continued overtures would only serve to frighten or anger them.†  (source)
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    No one spoke to me and I didn't make any overtures.†  (source)
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overture as in:  the play's overture

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The idea is introduced in the play's overture.
overture = introduction
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    "The overture's already started," he said.  (source)
    overture = music played as an introduction to a longer piece
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    As the overture ended, the room went black.  (source)
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    Drinks were the overture to dinner.†
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an overture to war†
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