Ambuscade

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈæmbÉ™sËŒkeɪd/
• Rhymes: -eɪd

Origin

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.

Full definition of ambuscade

Noun

1. (dated) An ambush; a trap laid for an enemy.
• 1904, Frederick William Rolfe, Hadrian the Seventh Chapter , The yellow cat deliberately stretched himself, yawned, and followed; and proceeded to carry out a wonderful scheme of feints and ambuscades in regard to a ping-pong ball which was kept for his proper diversion.
2. The place in which troops lie hidden for an ambush.
• 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe Chapter , I went so far with it in my Imagination, that I employed my self several days to find out proper Places to put my self in Ambuscade
3. The body of troops lying in ambush.

Derived terms

• ambuscader

Verb

1. (dated) To lie in wait for, or to attack from a covert or lurking place; to waylay.
• 1849, Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, James R. Osgood (1873), page 228:About noon we passed a small village in Merrimack at Thornton's Ferry, and tasted of the waters of Naticook Brook on the same side, where French and his companions, whose grave we saw in Dunstable, were ambuscaded by the Indians.
• 1849, Roswell Sabine Ripley, The War with Mexico, Volume I, Harper & Brothers (1849), page 106:On the return to camp, the party was ambuscaded and dispersed, the officer and one man having been killed.
• 1923, Carl Sandburg, film review dated 18 May 1923, re-printed in The Movies Are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920-1928 (ed. Arnie Bernstein), Lake Claremont Press (2000), ISBN 9781893121058, page 169:But aside from its love story, the picture is filled with the fighting and shooting, fording rivers with wagon trains, Indians ambuscading wagon trains, scouts who drink whisky and fight and ride magnificently.