Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Prelude   /prˈeɪlˌud/   Listen
noun
Prelude  n.  An introductory performance, preceding and preparing for the principal matter; a preliminary part, movement, strain, etc.; especially (Mus.), a strain introducing the theme or chief subject; a movement introductory to a fugue, yet independent; with recent composers often synonymous with overture. "The last Georgic was a good prelude to the Aenis" "The cause is more than the prelude, the effect is more than the sequel, of the fact."
Synonyms: Preface; introduction; preliminary; preamble; forerunner; harbinger; precursor.


verb
Prelude  v. t.  
1.
To introduce with a previous performance; to play or perform a prelude to; as, to prelude a concert with a lively air.
2.
To serve as prelude to; to precede as introductory. "(Music) preluding some great tragedy."


Prelude  v. i.  (past & past part. preluded; pres. part. preluding)  To play an introduction or prelude; to give a prefatory performance; to serve as prelude. "The musicians preluded on their instruments." "We are preluding too largely, and must come at once to the point."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Prelude" Quotes from Famous Books



... prelude, pours forth his voice at once, launches into the most daring modulations, pursues the freshest and most delicate melodies, cadences, pauses, and trills; now you heard the notes murmuring at the bottom of its throat, like the ripple of the brook as it loses itself ...
— Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (Vol 1 of 2) • John Morley
... and the Chieftain, for his own vengeance and the intimidation of justice, resolved upon an exemplary punishment. He waylaid the Lord of Session, emptied his pockets, killed his horses, broke his coach in pieces, and having bound his lackeys, drowned them in a pond. This was but the prelude of revenge, for presently (and here is the touch of humour) he made the Lord of Session ride at dead of night to the gallows, whereon the three malefactors were hanging. One arm of the crossbeams was still untenanted. 'By my soul, mon,' cried Gilderoy to the Lord ...
— A Book of Scoundrels • Charles Whibley
... and I'll give you all a treat." He played the sentimental prelude of this characteristic product of the vaudeville stage, every note of which was plagiarized from a thousand plagiarisms and which imagined that eternity rhymed with serenity and mother with weather. ...
— Who Cares? • Cosmo Hamilton
... Micheltorena issued a decree which restored San Diego Mission temporalities to the management of the padre. He explained in his prelude that the decree was owing to the fact that the Mission establishments had been reduced to the mere space occupied by the buildings and orchards, that the padres had no support but that of charity, etc. Mofras gives the number of Indians in 1842 as five hundred, ...
— The Old Franciscan Missions Of California • George Wharton James
... imposing than the assemblage which listened to Mr. Bonar Law at Balmoral on Easter Tuesday, 1912; and the latter occasion, though never surpassed in splendour and magnitude by any single gathering, was in significance but a prelude to the magnificent climax reached in the following September on the day when the Covenant was signed ...
— Ulster's Stand For Union • Ronald McNeill


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com