Debacle vs Debouch - What's the difference?
debacle | debouch |
An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
* 1952 , ,
* 1996 , Richard L. Canby, "SOF: An Alternative Perspective on Doctrine", in Schultz et al'' (eds), ''Roles And Missions of SOF In The Aftermath Of The Cold War ,
* 2002, Jacqueline West, South America, Central America and the Carribean 2002 , Routledge, ISBN 1-857431-21-9, page 68,
* 2007 , BP pipeline failure: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources , "Statement by Peter Van Tuyn",
(ecology) A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.
* 1836 , , How to Observe: Geology ,
* 1837 , John Lee Comstock, Outlines of Geology ,
* 1872, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution'',
(geography) A narrow outlet from which a body of water pours.
* 1888 , May 26, Phillip Carroll, Sulphur Mines in Sicily , in
(military) A fortress at the end of a defile.
* 1887 , , McClellan's Own Story ,
To pour forth from a narrow opening. To emerge from a narrow place like a defile into open country or a wider space.
:* 1985', the pretty pimpled young man, no longer a boy, came down from the imperial box in his purple to the performers’ well which '''debouched into the arena. — Anthony Burgess, ''Kingdom of the Wicked
:* 1993', Ungrateful brats '''debouch from their cheap holiday in someone else’s misery and their tired parents try desperately to summon up joy out of indifference. — Will Self, ''My Idea of Fun
:* 1997', the water rushes away in uncommonly long waterfalls, downward for hours, unbrak’d, till at last '''debouching into an interior Lake of great size — Thomas Pynchon, ''Mason & Dixon
As nouns the difference between debacle and debouch
is that debacle is an event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences while debouch is a narrow outlet from which a body of water pours.As a verb debouch is
to pour forth from a narrow opening. To emerge from a narrow place like a defile into open country or a wider space.debacle
English
Alternative forms
* * (rare) * (rare)Noun
(en noun)- The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.
p. 188,
- The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia and lays the ground for a military debacle .
- The Falklands-Malvinas débâcle provided the opportunity to restructure the military High Command; Alfonsín removed anti-democratic senior officers and replaced them with more co-operative ones.
p. 46,
- The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea.
p. 69
p. 51
- For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually
p. 425,
- When this débâcle commences
Usage notes
* Although authorities say that the word is properly spelled with both accents their use tends to be variable, with either or both often dropped, particularly in non-technical writing. Its headword in the online Oxford English Dictionary has none.Synonyms
* (An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously) fiascoReferences
* 2005, Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-861057-2 * 1998, The Dorling Kindersley Illustrated Oxford Dictionary'', Dorling Kindersley Limited and Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-7513-1110-3, page 211 * 2006, Ed. Michael Allaby, A Dictionary of Ecology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860905-1 * 1999, Ed. Robert Allen, Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860947-7 * 1999, Ed. Jennifer Speake, The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-425-16995-2debouch
English
(wikipedia debouch)Noun
(debouches)Scientific American Supplement, No 647,
- In level portions of the country vertical shafts are preferred, but where the mine is situated upon a hill a debouch may often be found below the sulphur seam, ...
- To prevent another demonstration of this character, and to insure a debouch on the south bank of the James, it became necessary to occupy Coggin's Point, which was done on the 3d, and the enemy driven back towards Petersburg.