ambulance

[ am-byuh-luh ns ]

/ ˈæm byə ləns /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ambulance ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a specially equipped motor vehicle, airplane, ship, etc., for carrying sick or injured people, usually to a hospital.

(formerly) a field hospital.

RELATED WORDS

transport, rescue, EMS

Nearby words

Origin of ambulance

1800–10; < French, equivalent to (hôpital) ambul(ant) walking (hospital) + -ance -ance. See ambulant

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for ambulance

That is a fact recorded by the doctor in charge of the ambulance at the inquest.
Harry’s Daddy, and Diana’s ‘Murder’: Royal Rumors In a New Play|Tom Sykes|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
By the time the ambulance arrived, over 10 minutes later, it was too late—Mills died soon after arriving at the hospital.
Red Tape Is Strangling Good Samaritans|Philip K. Howard|December 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
At Woodhull Hospital, the Bed-Stuy ambulance crew kept doing all they could as they wheeled Ramos into the emergency room.
'Please Don't Die!': The Frantic Battle to Save Murdered Cops|Michael Daly|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Ramos was still showing no signs of life when they got him on a backboard and into the ambulance.
'Please Don't Die!': The Frantic Battle to Save Murdered Cops|Michael Daly|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST

He then went back to his volunteer corps, which had formed when they did not yet have an ambulance.
'Please Don't Die!': The Frantic Battle to Save Murdered Cops|Michael Daly|December 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
News of the raging battle came in with every ambulance to the Clair Hospital.
Ruth Fielding In the Red Cross|Alice B. Emerson
At about five o'clock I got back to my hotel, which is the headquarters of the Ambulance Internationale.
Diary of the Besieged Resident in Paris|Henry Labouchre
Plank, standing beside the stretcher, raised his head, listening to the ambulance arriving at full speed.
The Fighting Chance|Robert W. Chambers
An Ambulance car went off very early this morning to their rescue and has brought them back safe.
A Journal of Impressions in Belgium|May Sinclair
He proved to be alive but with a leg broken and was put into the ambulance which had come up.
Our Little Cossack Cousin|F. A. Postnikov

British Dictionary definitions for ambulance

ambulance

/ (ˈæmbjʊləns) /

noun

a motor vehicle designed to carry sick or injured people

Word Origin for ambulance

C19: from French, based on (hôpital) ambulant mobile or field (hospital), from Latin ambulāre to walk

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ambulance

ambulance

1798, "mobile or field hospital," from French (hôpital) ambulant, literally "walking (hospital)," from Latin ambulantem (nominative ambulans), present participle of ambulare "to walk" (see amble).

AMBULANCE, s. f. a moveable hospital. These were houses constructed in a manner so as to be taken to pieces, and carried from place to place, according to the movements of the army; and served as receptacles in which the sick and wounded men might be received and attended. ["Lexicographica-Neologica Gallica" (The Neological French Dictionary), William Dupré, London, 1801]

The word was not common in English until the meaning transferred from "field hospital" to "vehicle for conveying wounded from field" (1854) during the Crimean War. In late 19c. U.S. the word was used dialectally to mean "prairie wagon." Ambulance-chaser as a contemptuous term for a type of lawyer dates from 1897.

Medicine definitions for ambulance

ambulance

[ ăm′byə-ləns ]

n.

A specially equipped vehicle used to transport the sick or injured.