ambush - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English enbuschen, from Old French enbuscier, anbuchier (verb) (whence Middle French embusche (noun)), from Old French en- + Vulgar Latin boscus (“wood”) (whence also bouquet), from Frankish *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambuscade. The change to am- from earlier forms in en- is unexplained. More at bush.

ambush (countable and uncountable, plural ambushes)

  1. The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack or kill by surprise.
  2. An attack launched from a concealed position.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege / Or ambush from the deep.
  3. The concealed position or state from which a surprise attack is launched.
    • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:
      the Georgean hills,
      Whoſe tops are couered with Tartarian theeues,
      That lie in ambuſh, waiting for a pray:
    • 1922, Agatha Christie, “Chapter 17”, in The Secret Adversary:
      Therefore, why not wait in ambush for Conrad behind the door, and when he entered bring down a chair, or one of the decrepit pictures, smartly on to his head.
  4. The troops posted in a concealed place, for attacking by surprise; those who lie in wait.

act

attack

troops

Translations to be checked

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

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy.
  2. (transitive) To attack by ambush; to waylay.
    Synonym: jump

to station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy

to attack by ambush; to waylay