Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A specially equipped vehicle used to transport the sick or injured.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A hospital establishment which accompanies an army in its movements in the field for the purpose of providing speedy assistance to soldiers wounded in battle.
- n. A two- or four-wheeled wagon constructed for conveying sick or wounded persons. Ambulance-wagons are constructed to run very easily, and are designed to carry one or two tiers of stretchers. Some forms are fitted with water-tank, medicine-chest, operating-table, and other conveniences. City hospital ambulances are light four-wheeled wagons, furnished with one or two beds, surgical appliances, restoratives, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. An emergency vehicle that transports sick or injured people to a hospital.
- n. military A mobile field hospital.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A field hospital, so organized as to follow an army in its movements, and intended to succor the wounded as soon as possible. Often used adjectively
- n. An ambulance wagon or cart for conveying the wounded from the field, or to a hospital.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a vehicle that takes people to and from hospitals
Etymologies
- From French ambulance, from ambulant ("walking, shifting"), from Latin ambulare ("to walk, go about"). (Wiktionary)
- French, from (hôpital) ambulant, mobile (hospital), from Latin ambulāns, ambulant-, present participle of ambulāre, to walk; see ambhi in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The idea that the word "ambulance" comes from the Latin word to walk, "ambulare", proved particularly intriguing, as did the fact that the months July and August were named after the first two Roman emperors, Julius Caesar and Augustus.”
“Jim Louro, a league safety officer for the Jersey Shore Pop Warner Football League, said his league already pays emergency medical technicians to attend games and an ambulance is often on site.”
The Huffington Post: Concussions In Sports: Athletes' Head Injuries Should Be Reviewed, Experts Say
“Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett proposed cuts in ambulance service and layoffs of dozens of fire and rescue workers Tuesday as part of a bid to save $12.9 million this year in case a referendum on a county ambulance fee passes in November.”
The Washington Post: Leggett proposes cuts in Montgomery County public safety services
“But his breathing had become so labored she called an ambulance.”
“They called an ambulance, and it came screaming up to the house with its sirens on.”
“Nick told me what had happened and we called an ambulance.”
“Until one morning my father grabbed at his chest, and opened his mouth like he was choking, and we called the ambulance, which arrived quickly, despite the rush-hour traffic, despite the twenty-five-mile-an-hour speed limit on our street.”
“I called the ambulance and made arrangements for child care.”
“I was confronted with the same sob story at the Memaloose rest stop on July 4th - car crash, husband in ambulance, abandoned children on the side of freeway, "just need $40.”
“When he can't do it himself he says, from the grass go get your mother, more tired than angry which is what I expected him to be, and then I run, and then she calls the ambulance since she can't drive, and the ambulance takes them to the hospital.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ambulance’.
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Society
social work, coverage, affiliate, social security, ambulance, clinic, health, insurance, emergency, mail, letter, envelope and 101 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words in which "u" is pronounced "yu"
cute, uniform, puny, municipal, butte, fume, perfume, puke, cucumber, huge, demure, cube and 95 more...
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health
ache, operation, ambulance, drop, chemist, pill, patient, hospital, injection, medicine, blood, clinic and 7 more...
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Automobiles
ambulance, automobile, beach buggy, cab, car, cement mixer, cherry, coach, compact, convertible, coupe, deuce and 66 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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5000 FREE SAT Words
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 229 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
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TankHughes's Words
ambulance, ampersand, assassin, assuage, atom, awkward, botany, boustrophedonic, brinksmanship, bumbershoot, bundesliga, calamity and 64 more...
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around bend words
IE roots ank-, ant- and others
angle, ankle, ankylosaur, england, anchor, ancon, elbow, ankylosis, ancylostomiasis, hook, uncinate, uncus and 66 more...
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TT2 Lesson 15
basement, filing cabinet, lift, laid up, spasm, muscle, develop, attic, clean out, emergency, emergency room, rush and 20 more...
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Words Some People Can't Pronounce, No...
vietnam, nuclear, vietnamese, macrame, sandwich, peripheral, remuneration, wash, mischievous, february, wednesday, spaghetti and 38 more...
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coffeezombie's Words
spam, recent, books, hypographia, zombie, register, join, nonsense, criterion, arcane, axe, scrabble and 19 more...
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tocky's words
yellow, preamble, ambulance, visceral, hermetic, thaumaturgy, metallurgy, scion, grimoire, revenant, covenant, wraith and 50 more...
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health
ache, operation, ambulance, drop, chemist's, pill, patient, hospital, injection, medicine, casualty ward, blood and 7 more...
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whycome7k's hate list
word's that annoy me, make no sense, or just hard to pronounce
whom, jib, lollygagging, horse-playing, feminisim, emaciate, juxtaposition, eminent, gist, oxymoron, omni, ocre and 12 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ambulance.
bilby The ambulance for people with slow illnesses. Sep 28, 2008
plethora Gah. I think it's because I'm used to much faster internet than I'm using at the moment. I did actually refresh this page to check if my edit had created a whole new comment, but it didn't show up :( Apr 20, 2008
sionnach Plethora, you're doing it again.
Plethora, you're (sort of) doing it again.
I must register mild dissent about the Wordie manual. Randomly scattering basic Wordie tips across the site like Easter eggs, with no discernible retrieval capacity, is not really quirkily charming. An FAQ page would be terrific, or appropriate deployment of an FAQ tag.
Apr 20, 2008
plethora I like how it's spread out too, John. Picking up little tidbits at random intervals makes them easy to remember. Apr 20, 2008
john Also the title of a tremendous song by TV on the Radio. This video doesn't do it justice; but it's well worth downloading the mps3.
I like how the manual for Wordie is spread out over a bunch of random words like "ambulance." Though I suppose people who don't know how to use the site are less amused. Perhaps a new tag is in order: faq. Apr 20, 2008
plethora Huzzah! You're my hero, c_b. I double posted a lot late last night and I was becoming incredibly annoyed with myself. Apr 20, 2008
chained_bear Plethora, if you "edit" your comment and repost it, you'll get a little "delete" option for a minute or so. You can delete some of your duplicate posts that way--if you were so inclined. Apr 19, 2008
plethora I have a friend who consistently pronounces this am-blee-ance.
I can't believe this posted three times. How irritating. Apr 19, 2008