Ambush definition
An example of an ambush is a trench in which soldiers are concealed before attacking.
An example of an ambush is an unexpected military raid of a house.
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.
The captain stationed an ambush near the harbor.
Origin of ambush
- Middle English embushen to place in concealment among bushes, lay in wait from Old French embuschier from Frankish boscu bush, woods
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- 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.
From Wiktionary