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:
Only about 700 Legionnaires managed to escape the ambuscade.
From Time Magazine Archive
The ambuscade capped a notably disgruntling week for Labor.
From Time Magazine Archive
I have experienced and feel a profound sadness for the Marines who perished in the last ambuscade of the Sandinistas.
From Time Magazine Archive
He lost three of the next four games before he recovered from the shock of that one intellectual ambuscade.
From Time Magazine Archive
Determined to prevent this, they had planned the ambuscade, and two other still stronger earthworks which awaited him further on.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Thornbury, Walter
The enemy hastened away to Drainsville an overwhelming force, and ambuscaded the road, where it entered the woods, with artillery and men of all arms.
From A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital by Jones, John Beauchamp
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
He performed well his duties in that position, but was killed on the day preceding the battle of Tupelo, the division to which he belonged having been ambuscaded by Forrest's troops.
From Fifty Years In The Northwest With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes by Folsom, William Henry Carman
Here, in 1776, a troop of Sheldon's Horse ambuscaded a body of Hessians, only one of whom escaped.
From The New York and Albany Post Road From Kings Bridge to "The Ferry at Crawlier, over against Albany," Being an Account of a Jaunt on Foot Made at Sundry Convenient Times between May and November, Nineteen Hundred and Five by Hine, C. G. (Charles Gilbert)
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 Ober, Frederick Albion
The gardens and grounds of Haverly Lodge were that night such a terrain as best suits the ambuscading warfare of the small god with the bow and darts.
From Destiny by Buck, Charles Neville
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 Johnson, Edward A. (Edward Austin)
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 Ogden, George W. (George Washington)
Before the assemblage could realize this new invasion, a nearer clatter of hoofs was heard along the high road, and one of the ambuscading party dashed up from the fringe of woods below.
From The Bell-Ringer of Angel's by Harte, Bret
And there they prospered for a blessed time Until Elimelech in his lordly prime, Hasting those cattle-spoilers to pursue, The ambuscading sons of Anak slew.
From A Celtic Psaltery by Graves, Alfred Perceval
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.
