ambush

1 of 2

verb

am·​bush ˈam-ˌbu̇sh How to pronounce ambush (audio)
ambushed; ambushing; ambushes
Synonyms of ambushnext

transitive verb

1
: to attack by surprise from a hidden place : waylay
Our troops ambushed the enemy units.
… his caravan that season had been ambushed and shot at twice on the way down …—Rudyard Kipling
2
: to station in ambush (see ambush entry 2 sense 2)
Mr and Mrs Fyne ambushed at their window—a most incredible occupation for people of their kind—saw with renewed anxiety a cab come to the door.—Joseph Conrad

intransitive verb

: to lie in wait : lurk
ambusher noun
ambushment
ˈam-ˌbu̇sh-mənt How to pronounce ambush (audio)
noun

ambush

2 of 2

noun

plural ambushes
1
: a trap in which one or more concealed attackers lie in wait to attack by surprise
soldiers caught in an ambush
Suddenly a shout comes down the line: "Contact front!" It's an ambush, with gunmen on both sides of the road.—Lev Grossman
… it is plain he must have been as stupid with weariness as myself, and looked as little where we were going, or we should not have walked into an ambush like blind men.—Robert Louis Stevenson
2
: the concealed position from which a surprise attack is made
a group of soldiers lying in ambush
… tanks alone are vulnerable to opposing infantry with antitank weapons, particularly at night when the infantry can more easily wait in ambush or approach unseen.—Neil Sheehan
also : an individual or group concealed for a surprise attack
All was then dead silence; for, loquacious as he was on other occasions, Captain Dalgetty knew well the necessity of an ambush keeping itself under covert. —Robert Burns
3
: the act of approaching or confronting someone with something unexpected
—often used before another noun
ambush journalism
… did not return calls or e-mails and was hostile when a television crew conducted an ambush interview several years ago.—Neely Tucker

Synonyms

Verb

Noun

See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus 

Examples of ambush in a Sentence

Verb We have reports of enemy soldiers ambushing civilians on this road. the king's enemies planned to ambush the royal coach on the way to Paris and capture the king Noun Many soldiers were killed in the ambush. The soldiers were lying in ambush, waiting for the enemy to approach. a snake waiting in ambush for its next meal
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Verb
Hernández caused an eruption two pitches later, ambushing a 1-and-0 fastball for a two-run shot the other way. —Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2024 Bjørn tries to get his family to safety without revealing the true danger to them, but they’re ambushed by the Dutch couple. —Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 13 Sep. 2024
Noun
Desmond comes back from the desert planet, insisting that the ambush was not from the native Fremon but from insurgents from allied houses. —Scott Tobias, Vulture, 17 Nov. 2024 The cartel has also been linked to the 2019 ambush that killed nine Americans in Mexico. —CBS News, 31 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for ambush 

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English enbuschen "to place in hiding in order to attack by surprise, to hide (oneself) in order to attack by surprise," borrowed from Anglo-French embuscher "to place (in the woods) in order to attack by surprise, conceal, lie in wait to attack by surprise" (also continental Old French [Normandy & Picardy] embuschier, Picard dialect embusquier), from em- em- + -buscher, verbal derivative of Picard bus, busc "forest, grove," going back to Old Low Franconian *būska-, going back to Germanic, ablaut variant of *buska- "bush, thicket" — more at bush entry 1

Note: Forms with initial am- instead of em-, which first appear in the noun in the sixteenth century and the verb in the seventeenth century, are of uncertain origin. Given the earlier use in nouns, their appearance may be a by-product of shift of stress to the initial syllable. The suggestion in the Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, that the change is due to association with ambage, does not seem very likely. — The meaning "forest, grove" attached to *būska-, whence the Picard masculine noun bus, busc, receded early before a Gallo-Romance derivative *buska, a re-formation of the Germanic etymon as a neuter collective plural noun, taken as feminine, whence Old French busche "piece of firewood," French bûche. This new formation, also with results in Occitan and Upper Italian dialects, represents a sense shift from "bush, thicket" to "wood collected for a fire" to "split piece of wood, splinter." For a detailed discussion of Romance and Germanic outcomes of būska- see Johannes Hubschmied, "Romanisch-germanische Wortprobleme I. Zur Geschichte von bois, bûche (mit Berücksichtigung der Ortsnamen)," Vox Romanica, Band 29 (1970), pp. 114-16. Within the framework of Germanic and Indo-European ablaut patterns as now understood, a lengthened grade *būska- is questionable, and one might have to appeal to variation of expressive vocabulary within Germanic. Hubschmid, however, works within J. Pokorny's framework, where an Indo-European root with a very general meaning and form, *beu-, *bheu-, *bheuə- "to swell," is subject to an indefinite number of ablaut variants and root extensions.

Noun

earlier enbusshe, borrowed from Middle French embusche, embusque, noun derivative of embuschier "to place (in the woods) in order to attack by surprise" — more at ambush entry 1

Note: For the initial am- in place of em- see note at ambush entry 1

First Known Use

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of ambush was in the 14th century

Phrases Containing ambush

Dictionary Entries Near ambush

ambuscado

ambush

ambush bug

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Ambush.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambush. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.

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Kids Definition

ambush

1 of 2 verb
am·​bush ˈam-ˌbu̇sh How to pronounce ambush (audio)
: to attack from an ambush

ambush

2 of 2 noun
: a trap in which hidden persons wait to attack by surprise

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