ambuscade

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“
At eight or nine the regent would repair to Chelles, there was therefore no time to be lost, particularly as this ambuscade was the last resource for the conspirators, who might be arrested at any moment, and who staked their remaining hopes on this last throw.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun An ambush.
  2. transitive verb To attack suddenly and without warning from a concealed place; ambush. See Synonyms at ambush.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • They would lie in ambuscade, and suddenly, as the procession was passing, would raise the war-whoop, discharge their guns, and raise shouts of laughter in view of the real or feigned consternation thus excited The maidens would of course shriek. —  David Crockett: His Life and Adventures
  • The Chouans assembled in small bands and attacked the Republicans at night in ambuscade, and when they had killed a few "Bleus" disappeared among the corn-fields or the furze-bushes. —  Brittany ; Its Byways
  • Soon after they had landed the Russians rushed out upon them from their ambuscade, and, after a sharp contest, drove them back to their boats. —  Peter the Great
  • We fell into an ambuscade, and one half of the corps to which my father belonged were cut to pieces, before we could receive any assistance. —  The Pacha of Many Tales
  • Wherever there was opportunity for an ambuscade, arrows showered upon them from the woods. —  French Pathfinders in North America
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

ambush ·  dm ·  pz ·  cosh ·  sandspit
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French embuscade (from Old French embuschier, to ambush) and Old Italian imboscata (from feminine past participle of imboscare, to ambush), both from Frankish *boscu, bush, woods.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also imbuscade (and, after Spanish or Italian, ambuscado, emboscata, imboscata), from French embuscade, from Italian imboscata = Spanish Portuguese emboscada = Old French embuchee, from Middle Latin *imboscata, an ambush, properly past participle feminine of imboscare, set in ambush: see ambush, v.
  2. from ambuscade, n.
 

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/æmbəsˈkeɪd/
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