Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To march from a narrow or confined area into the open.
  • intransitive verb To emerge; issue.
  • intransitive verb To cause to emerge or issue.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To emerge or pass out; issue
  • In physical geography, to issue from a mountain: said of a river which enters a plain from an elevated region.
  • In anatomy, to open out; empty or pour contents, as into a duct or other vessel: as, the ureter debouches into the bladder.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To march out from a wood, defile, or other confined spot, into open ground; to issue.
  • intransitive verb (Geog.) To issue; -- said of a stream passing from a gorge out into an open valley or a plain.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geography A narrow outlet from which a body of water pours.
  • noun military A fortress at the end of a defile.
  • verb To pour forth from a narrow opening. To emerge from a narrow place like a defile into open country or a wider space.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb march out (as from a defile) into open ground
  • verb pass out or emerge; especially of rivers

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French déboucher : dé-, out of (from Old French des-; see de–) + bouche, mouth (from Latin bucca, cheek, mouth).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French déboucher (de + bouche), modelled on Italian sboccare.

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Examples

  • The emergency-exit stairs at One World Trade Center will debouch to the street rather than into the lobby to head off a mayhem collision of firefighters and panicking tenants.

    The Skyscraper as a Pillar of Confidence Julie V. Iovine 2011

  • The sparrow had arrived in a block and cannot debouch from a there.

    The sparrow in a block 2008

  • If you ignore that exit and keep going straight, you will debouch onto Admiral Kalbfus Road opposite the Newport Grand Slots emporium.

    Ron Paul Johnny Pez 2007

  • If you ignore that exit and keep going straight, you will debouch onto Admiral Kalbfus Road opposite the Newport Grand Slots emporium.

    Archive 2007-11-01 Johnny Pez 2007

  • Whilst they were debating these points, the Lacedaemonians had incorporated the men of Tegea and the men of Mantinea, and were ready to debouch into the bimarine region. 256 And as the two armies advanced almost at the same time, the Corinthians and the rest reached the Nemea,257 and the Lacedaemonians and their allies occupied Sicyon.

    Hellenica 2007

  • And have we any British interests which would be interfered with by a debouch of the Egyptians on the sea?

    The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton 2006

  • Adrian and the four younger ladies, armed with such shooting sticks as had been left by the ‘guns,’ proceeded down a farm lane towards where the main ‘drive’ of the afternoon would debouch.

    Maid in Waiting 2004

  • The material is heavy, but shows no quartz; whereas the smaller valleys which debouch upon the northern or right bank of the main line, display a curious conformation of the “white stone,” contorted like oyster shells, and embedded in the trap.

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • And that is the firm belief of all of the NATO allies, that we need to continue to strike at his instruments of repression and intensify those, rather than to let up and debouch.

    Press Briefing By Joe Lockhart ITY National Archives 1999

  • One tight crawlway wormed through the citadel walls to debouch near the Postern of Fate.

    The Tower of Fear Cook, Glen 1989

Comments

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  • See, vast trackless spaces,

    As in a dream they change, they swiftly fill,

    Countless masses debouch upon them ...

    Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok"

    January 9, 2008

  • "Suddenly on my left I heard the hoot of another car, and realized to my horror that I was almost up on a couple of gate-posts through which a private road debouched on the highway."

    - John Buchan, 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'.

    August 27, 2009

  • Some things ooze and others gush

    In trickles or in a headlong rush

    But all will debouch

    With unifying whoosh

    In the Heraclitean morning flush.

    November 25, 2015