debouch
Americanverb (used without object)
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to march out from a narrow or confined place into open country, as a body of troops.
The platoon debouched from the defile into the plain.
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Physical Geography.
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to emerge from a relatively narrow valley upon an open plain.
A river or glacier debouches on the plains.
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to flow from a small valley into a larger one.
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to come forth; emerge.
noun
verb
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(intr) (esp of troops) to move into a more open space, as from a narrow or concealed place
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(intr) (of a river, glacier, etc) to flow from a valley into a larger area or body
noun
Etymology
Origin of debouch
1655–65; < French déboucher, equivalent to dé- dis- 1 + -boucher, verbal derivative of bouche mouth < Latin bucca cheek, jaw
Explanation
When soldiers debouch, they march out of a very narrow space. Troops might debouch out of a long pass between mountains, for example. When military troops debouch, they march in a long, narrow line — sometimes single file — because of the width of the area they're moving through. As they debouch, the soldiers emerge in a larger area, like an open field. The narrow space is known as a defile in military terminology. The verb debouch has a French root, déboucher, which combines dé, or "removal," and bouche, "mouth."
Vocabulary lists containing debouch
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But who knew that for centuries it has been possible to travel inland by boat from Rotterdam, climb the Rhine, get into the Danube and debouch upon the Black Sea?
From Time Magazine Archive
Undirected, highways smash and crash through whole neighborhoods, debouch a torrent of autos into already traffic-choked streets.
From Time Magazine Archive
But that any of these passages should debouch beyond the Roman lines had not occurred to them.
From For the Temple A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
They generally debouch in a lake situated in the middle of the depression.
From The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II by Alexander Leslie
There they rested, and we soon saw the rebel columns debouch from both the Loudon and the Kingston roads.
From Campaign of Battery D, First Rhode Island light artillery. by Ezra Knight Parker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
