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verb

ouvrir

/u.vʁiʁ/

See full conjugation →
verb/u.vʁiʁ/

to open; to begin, to initiate; to open (of a door or a flower); to open, to begin; to turn on, to switch on, to put on (of a device or an appliance)

À peine arrivé, il a ouvert les hostilités.He initiated hostilities almost as soon as he arrived.

Inherited from Middle French ouvrir, from Old French ovrir, obrir, from Vulgar Latin *operīre, alteration of Classical Latin aperīre (“to open”). See also Italian oprire; Catalan obrir.