ambuscade
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ambuscade
1575–85; < Middle French embuscade, alteration (under influence of Old French embuschier; see ambush) of Middle French emboscade < Old Italian imboscata, feminine past participle of imboscare, verbal derivative with in- in- 2 of bosco wood, forest < Germanic *bosk- bush 1
Explanation
An ambuscade is a surprise attack. There's nothing funnier than watching your cat lie in wait behind the couch until your dog wanders over, only to be startled by the cat's ambuscade. While ambuscade is a bit old-fashioned, it's a perfectly good way to say ambush. Soldiers in battle conduct strategic ambuscades, and you may also enjoy using an ambuscade against your brother now and then, leaping out from behind a door to make him jump. It can also be used as a verb: "The dog is surprised every single time the cat ambuscades him."
Vocabulary lists containing ambuscade
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He lost three of the next four games before he recovered from the shock of that one intellectual ambuscade.
From Time Magazine Archive
The ambuscade capped a notably disgruntling week for Labor.
From Time Magazine Archive
Only about 700 Legionnaires managed to escape the ambuscade.
From Time Magazine Archive
The general belief was that the King was a chance victim of the ambuscade which was intended for the Orchanie-Sofia autobus, occupants of which were known to be carrying large sums of money.
From Time Magazine Archive
But when the Buccaneers spread further inland, a body of soldiers was despatched to the coast, to practise a stratagem, and to form an ambuscade.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Walter Thornbury
On the 5th of November the army, misled by treacherous guides and thirst-stricken, was ambuscaded in dense forest at Kashgil, 30 m. south of Obeid.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various
Kabba Rega had no doubt ordered the various routes towards Rionga's province to be ambuscaded.
From Ismailia by Sir Samuel White Baker
His fleet was ambuscaded and surrounded, and when his men had made their last stand he refused to surrender.
From Peeps at Many Lands: Norway by A. Heaton (Alfred Heaton) Cooper
The garrison was beleaguered, foraging-parties assaulted, sorties ambuscaded, and such was the alarm, says the good Bishop Las Casas in his history, that the people feared to be burned within their dwellings.
From Vasco Nu?ez de Balboa by Frederick Albion Ober
But since they rode straight for the hills, he feared that if he followed he himself would be ambuscaded.
From The Treasure of the Tigris A Tale of Mesopotamia by A. F. Mockler Ferryman
We had frequently gone out in small ambuscading parties in hopes of picking off a few of the ladrons, but without any success.
From Los Gringos Or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia by H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise
I again succeeded in ambuscading them, which caused them to give up the pursuit for the night.
From The Battle of Atlanta and Other Campaigns, Addresses, Etc. by Grenville Mellen Dodge
That boy must be a throw-back, thought the colonel, to the ambuscading, feud-fighting men on his mother’s side.
From The Bondboy by George W. (George Washington) Ogden
Colonel Butler hearing the firing on his right and rear imagined he was discovered, and that instead of ambuscading the rebels, he was himself to be surprised by this unexpected attack in the rear.
From The Journal of Lieut. John L. Hardenbergh of the Second New York Continental Regiment from May 1 to October 3, 1779, in General Sullivan's Campaign Against the Western Indians With an Introduction, Copious Historical Notes, and Maps of the Battle-field of Newtown and Groveland Ambuscade by John Leonard Hardenbergh
The thick growth of grass and vines made ambuscading a favorite pastime with the Spaniards.
From History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest by Edward A. (Edward Austin) Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
