- overture
- overture n Overture, approach, advance, tender, bid are words of somewhat indefinite application covering a vari-ety of acts or actions by which one person or party tries to gain the goodwill of another person or party.Overture implies an attempt to begin a relationship. It may designate a formal proposal intended to open negotiations (as for peace, for a marriage between persons of royal blood, or for a merger of corporations). It is, however, often applied to an act or speech that may be construed as a search for an opening (as for friendship, for reconciliation, or for cooperation){
she was not one of those backward and delicate ladies, who can die rather than make the first overture— Fielding
}{"You are the new second officer, I believe." Mr. Powell answered in the affirmative, wondering if this was a friendly overture— Conrad
}Approach, often in the plural, may be used in place of overture when the latter is felt to be too formal{the two girls made timid approaches to each other
}{the minister is always tempted to break through . . . with intimate approaches to a congregation which are off the record— Sperry
}{females who are most often involved in tavern pickups and in street approaches— Kinsey et al
}Advance, usually in the plural, may be applied to an attempt to gain love, friendship, or goodwill, whether it serve as an overture or as an effort to establish a closer relationship{she tried to make talk, but Hugh answered all her advances . . . briefly— Anderson
}and it is the one of these terms that is freely used without qualification to suggest irregularity or impropriety in the overtures made{Frances withstood the advances of the King, but she accepted his gift— Sylvia Gray
}{if an officer with a higher rank than my husband's makes advances to me, do I have to submit if I want my husband to get promoted?— Kaderll
}Tender retains its primary meaning of offer, but it does not necessarily imply specific acts or a formal proposal. Sometimes it suggests little more than a sign or token{"He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me." "Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl. . . . Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?"— Shak.
}{honored him by the tender of some important appointment— J. D. Hicks
}Bid adds to advance the implication of appeal or, sometimes, of invitation; it always requires qualification{a bid for sympathy
}{a bid for patronage
}Like the other words of this group, the specific nature of the act or action can be inferred only from the context{de Gaulle's speech was generally considered a bid for the presidency— Ehrmann
}{the establishing of a whaling colony as their first bid to fortune on the South river— Amer. Guide Series: Del.
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
