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
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
The woodsmen of Virginia, veteran hunters and Indian-fighters, were thrown far out in front and on either flank, scouring the forest to detect any sign of a lurking ambuscade.
From The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Parkman, Francis
He tripped them up with facts, ambuscaded them with facts, bombarded them with broadsides of facts.
From The Iron Heel by London, Jack
Within a month Chinese troops ambuscaded a French column at Bac-Le and the Government decided on a punitive expedition.
From A History of the Third French Republic by Wright, C. H. C. (Charles Henry Conrad)
We are all safe enough now, for they never follow the windings of the watercourse, knowing that at any turn they might be ambuscaded.
From The Treasure of the Tigris A Tale of Mesopotamia by Ferryman, A. F. Mockler
Denvil and his fifteen Pathans had been ambuscaded and outnumbered; and in the cramped space a sharp hand-to-hand encounter was in progress.
From Captain Desmond, V.C. by Diver, Maud
Then she knew the feeling of the man who finds himself ambuscaded.
From The Beach of Dreams by Stacpoole, H. De Vere (Henry De Vere)
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 Dodge, Grenville Mellen
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 Hardenbergh, John Leonard
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)
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 Wise, H. A. (Henry Augustus)
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
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.
