ambush

am·bush

Use ambush in a sentence

noun

An ambush is defined as a surprise attack by someone, or something that was hidden.
An example of an ambush is an unexpected military raid of a house.
The definition of an ambush is an area in which someone hid before attacking someone.
An example of an ambush is a trench in which soldiers are concealed before attacking.

verb

Ambush means to attack by surprise.
An example of ambush is when soldiers from a Navy boat secretly empty onto a beach in the middle of the night in order to attack.

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"ambush." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 12 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush>.

APA Style

ambush. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush

ambush

a deployment of persons in hiding to make a surprise attack
1. the persons in hiding
2. their place of hiding
the act of so lying in wait to attack
a surprise attack made by persons waiting in ambush

Origin of ambush

Old French embusche from embuschier: see ambushthe transitive verbintransitive verb

to hide in ambush
to attack from ambush

Origin of ambush

ME embusshen < OFr embuschier, to lay an ambush < ML *imboscare < in-, in- + boscus, woods < Frank busk, akin to bush

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MLA Style

"ambush." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 12 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush>.

APA Style

ambush. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush

ambush

noun

A sudden attack made from a concealed position.
a. Those hiding in order to attack by surprise: The captain stationed an ambush near the harbor.
b. The hiding place used for such an attack: “Uncle Harm had hunted the way Trapper did—on foot, stalking and laying traps, shooting from ambush” ( Rick Bass )

transitive verb

am·bushed, am·bush·ing, am·bush·es

To attack from a concealed position.

Origin of ambush

Middle English embushen to place in concealment among bushes, lay in wait from Old French embuschier from Frankish boscu bush, woods

Related Forms:

am′bush′er
noun

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"ambush." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 12 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush>.

APA Style

ambush. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush

ambush

ambush ambuscade bushwhack waylay

These verbs mean to attack suddenly and without warning from a concealed place: guerrillas ambushing a platoon; highway robbers ambuscading a stagecoach; a patrol bushwhacked by poachers; a truck waylaid by robbers.

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"ambush." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 12 March 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush>.

APA Style

ambush. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Ambush

Noun

(plural ambushes)

The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack by surprise.
An attack launched from a concealed position.
The troops posted in a concealed place, for attacking by surprise; those who lie in wait.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present ambushes, present participle ambushing, simple past and past participle ambushed)

To station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy.
To attack by ambush; to waylay.

Origin

From Old French embusche (noun), embushier, embuissier (verb), from Old French em- + Vulgar Latin boscus, bosca, boscum (“wood”), from Frankish *boscu, *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *busk- (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambuscade. The change to am- from earlier forms in en- is unexplained. More at bush.