AMBUSH • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ambush

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/ˈæmbˌʊʃ/ Listen

noun

Ambush n.

A disposition or arrangement of troops for attacking an enemy unexpectedly from a concealed station. Hence: Unseen peril; a device to entrap; a snare. "Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege Or ambush from the deep."

A concealed station, where troops or enemies lie in wait to attack by surprise. "Bold in close ambush, base in open field."

The troops posted in a concealed place, for attacking by surprise; liers in wait. (Obs.) "The ambush arose quickly out of their place."

To lay an ambush, to post a force in ambush.

verb

Ambush v. t. (past & past part. ambushed; pres. part. ambushing)

To station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy. "By ambushed men behind their temple laid, We have the king of Mexico betrayed."

To attack by ambush; to waylay.

Ambush v. i. To lie in wait, for the purpose of attacking by surprise; to lurk. "Nor saw the snake that ambushed for his prey."

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Etymology of 'Ambush'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ambush" Quotes from Famous Books

... their rations, plain but plentiful at first, at the last only a mouldy crust and a bit of rusty bacon. I have been upon an ambulance-train freighted with human agony delayed for hours by rumors of an enemy in ambush. I have fed men hungry with the ravening hunger of the wounded with scanty rations of musty corn-bread; have seen them drink eagerly of foetid water, dipped from the road-side ditches. Yet they bore it all with supreme patience; ...

— Memories - A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure During Four Years of War • Fannie A. (Mrs.) Beers

... threatened with dire punishment. From this moment fear complicated my feeling of remorse. I felt my hair stand on end. A few minutes later I saw three or four human shapes spying at me from the terrace, where they seemed to be waiting in ambush; I withdrew; the shapes vanished into the air; ...

— Brazilian Tales • Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis

... nevertheless, afford to lose its one statue to its one hero. We all know the story of the gallant young Chevalier d'Assas, captain of an Auvergnat regiment, and of his no less heroic companion, the Sergeant Dubois: how when reconnoitring at night in the forest near Closter-camp, their men in ambush behind them, they came suddenly upon the foe. A dozen bayonets were pointed at their breasts with the ...

— The Roof of France • Matilda Betham-Edwards

... friends to help him and killed a sergeant who had displeased him by carrying stories of his behaviour to his mother. When a little older, in a village of the Cotentin, at the request of a young lady he professed to love, he laid an ambush with some friends for a Monsieur des Mostiers, but only succeeded in wounding him severely, and barely escaped the execution that punished one of his comrades in the same affair. Developing rapidly into a bravo of ...

— The Story of Rouen • Sir Theodore Andrea Cook

... ceremonials on identical days. In one of these ceremonials, all the men of the entire pueblo have a rock contest with all the men of Samoki. Again, when a person of the pueblo has been killed by another pueblo treacherously or in ambush, or in any way except by fair fight, the pueblo as a unit hastens to avenge the death on ...

— The Bontoc Igorot • Albert Ernest Jenks

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