Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An ambush.
- v. To attack suddenly and without warning from a concealed place; ambush. See Synonyms at ambush.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A lying in wait and concealment for the purpose of attacking by surprise; an ambush.
- n. A secret station in which troops lie concealed with a view to attacking suddenly and by surprise; an ambush.
- n. A body of troops lying in ambush.
- To attack from a concealed position.
- To lie in ambush: as, “ambuscading ways,”
Wiktionary
- n. dated An ambush; a trap laid for an enemy.
- v. dated To lie in wait for, or to attack from a covert or lurking place; to waylay.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A lying in a wood, concealed, for the purpose of attacking an enemy by surprise. Hence: A lying in wait, and concealed in any situation, for a like purpose; a snare laid for an enemy; an ambush.
- n. rare A place in which troops lie hid, to attack an enemy unexpectedly.
- n. (Mil.) The body of troops lying in ambush.
- v. To post or conceal in ambush; to ambush.
- v. To lie in wait for, or to attack from a covert or lurking place; to waylay.
- v. To lie in ambush.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of concealing yourself and lying in wait to attack by surprise
- v. wait in hiding to attack
Etymologies
- French embuscade, from Italian imboscata, or Spanish emboscada, from emboscar ("to ambush"), from Late Latin imboscare, from Frankish *boscu, *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *busk- (“bush, heavy stick”). More at bush. (Wiktionary)
- 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. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Wherefore, then, did he steal in ambuscade into my palace, but to betray either my honor or my life, – perhaps both!”
“The Amalekites and Canaanites, who had been lying in ambuscade expecting their movement, rushed down upon them from the heights and became the instruments of punishing their guilty rebellion.”
“Lord Beaufort surprised them by a clever ambuscade from the stable wall; he told Mary he had been quite mistaken and wrong in what he had asserted, and he was sorry that she had overheard it.”
“Mr Campion shuddered to think of the kind of ambuscade Uncle William might have arranged had he ever conceived the idea of such a method of shelving the suspicion against him.”
“He had another encounter with the wild-dog, who treacherously attacked him in flank from ambuscade.”
“When a few weeks later it was reported in the papers that Wilcox had been shot at from an ambuscade, it was an open secret that McMurdo was still at work upon his unfinished job.”
“They were going down the path, directly beneath the ambuscade!”
“It was a troubled time, with the world upside down, and we scratching with our fingernails to hold the Ruskis back by foray and ambuscade; in such disorders, anything is possible, even a woman fighting-chief.”
“If you are still reading this and have not clicked over to Blogger #2145's latest Sarah Palin ambuscade, you may suspect this blog falls within the parameters of The Most Fascinating Person I Have Known or A Teacher Who Changed My Life and you would be right on both counts.”
“But hand me that great-coat, Captain, and we will place the instruments in ambuscade, until they are called into action in due time.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ambuscade’.
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Even More 250 Spelling Words
Good for intermediate and advanced spellers and anybody who wants to use words with precision
frustum, mirepoix, occiput, epulis, noesis, ultimo, fipple, rapparee, zamouse, rhipidate, habile, detente and 238 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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briwref's list
defalcation, macerate, beldam, nescience, ochlocracy, bibelot, estivate, spatulated, introversive, mastoidal, belletristic, objurgation and 108 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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English words that came from French
I'm a French teacher, so these are always good to find
aerosol, epilepsy, odometer, fondant, luster, Caroline, angel, flageolet, retour, ambuscade, amortize
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Its a Stretch
pandiculation, persiflage, quixotic, abjure, non sequitur, ouevre, addlepated, shibboleth, bloviate, mundicidious, illaqueate, frigorific and 13 more...
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G...R...E
gross.
sybarite, restiveness, churl, nepotism, jingoism, pusillanimous, gaffe, incisive, enervate, bucolic, concomitant, abeyance and 158 more...
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The Iliad
Selection from Homer's, The Iliad. Written 800BCE. Samuel Butler translation.
A day will come w..., spears, bossed sh..., his eyes glared l..., a din which reach..., our cups kept bri..., the black blood f..., sweat rained from..., shady glades of t..., my arrow has not ..., many-fountained, thunderbolt, all bedrabbled in... and 102 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 2: More Common
pilgrim, indubitably, incorrigible, bombastic, histrionics, depredation, perspicuity, discombobulate, peregrination, ambulatory, redux, fractious and 164 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Words I will probably never use
décolleté, pendragon, amerce, viviparous, dragoon, brigand, outlaw, outlawry, lugubrious, boor, contretemps, decrepit and 151 more...
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Learned (or Encountered) in Reading
I have a list for words learned from Newsweek; here's where I keep all the stuff from other shit I read.
Except when I'm looking stuff up and find new words that way. Those go on their...cellie, laminectomy, mridangam, terroir, hypospadias, crus, corpora cavernosa, crura, uretheral meatus, bartholin's gland, coloquintida, colopexy and 921 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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word list
abandon, ache, augment, avow, atone, approbate, apprehend, abut, apostatize, abase, abash, abate and 155 more...
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Oh them words, them words
My fancies, my cudgels.
liquescent, ferly, lamia, basilisk, trigon, fantast, stirp, tristesse, enfleurage, stemma, formicary, lacrimation and 346 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ambuscade.
jaime_d from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus" Jan 11, 2009
milosrdenstvi Just a so-much-cooler way to say 'ambush'. Aug 18, 2008