‖ embouchure
(ɑ̃buʃyr)
Also 9 embouchier, 8 ambusheer.
[Fr.; f. emboucher to put in or to the mouth; also refl. of a river, to discharge itself by a mouth; f. en- in + bouche mouth.]
1. The mouth of a river or creek. Also transf. the opening out of a valley into a plain.
| 1792 Fortn. Ramble xvi. 114 We reached the embouchure of the fall. 1812 Examiner 14 Sept. 580/2 Near to the embouchier of Berezina. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 238 The city Foah..so late as the beginning of the fifteenth century, was on this embouchure. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. ii. i. 71 Huge cones of white clay and sand..guarding the embouchure of the valleys. 1868 G. Duff Pol. Surv. 100 It lies..at the embouchure of several rivers. |
2. Music. ‘The part of a musical instrument applied to the mouth’ (Grove).
| 1834 M. Somerville Connex. Phys. S. xvii. (1849) 169 The embouchure of a flute. 1873 W. Lees Acoustics i. iii. 27 The air..is made to play upon the thin edge of the pipe at the embouchure C. |
3. Music. ‘The disposition of the lips, tongue and other organs necessary for producing a musical tone’ (Grove).
| 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. xc, You see..I have got the ambusheer already [on the German flute]. 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 536 The second octave is produced by a stronger pressure of wind and an alteration of embouchure. |