debouche

See also: débouché, débouche, and debouch

English

Etymology

From French déboucher (“to unblock, uncork; to finish; to culminate”), from dé- (“un-”) + boucher (“to block, stop”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈbuːʃ/

Verb

debouche (third-person singular simple present debouches, present participle debouching, simple past and past participle debouched)

1. (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.

2. (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