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, 13 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. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., 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. 536/2. The second octave is produced by a stronger pressure of wind and an alteration of embouchure.
