ambush

1 of 2

verb

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

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 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

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
Verb
The Ukrainian military came to life, ambushing and devastating gargantuan Russian columns advancing over woodland roads toward Kyiv. TIME, 2 Mar. 2024 The very brief clips of Lancet strikes are shown among a lot of other footage of Russian forces fighting in woodland and ambushing Ukrainian soldiers in cars and pickup trucks, including graphic images of dead bodies. David Hambling, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024 The Monarchs certainly looked like an Open team on Tuesday, ambushing Dougherty Valley as Ripp had 12 points after the first quarter and 18 at halftime. Darren Sabedra, The Mercury News, 28 Feb. 2024 When unsuspecting penguins, for example, dip into the ocean, a leopard seal sitting in wait around the ice will ambush them. Katie Liu, Discover Magazine, 28 Feb. 2024 The conflict began on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants ambushed Israeli border communities from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people and taking 253 hostage. Louisa Loveluck, Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2024 The Bulldogs ambushed Florida offensively in the first half, leading by as much as 11 in the first frame, but the Gators defense clamped down in the second half to hold Georgia to shooting 37% in the final 20 minutes. Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024 Herrera, who made his MLB debut last season with the St. Louis Cardinals, ambushed a first-pitch cutter over the heart of the plate from Curacao’s Cody Mincey and sent it 384 feet to left field to give Panama the lead for good. Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 9 Feb. 2024 Prosecutors believe that Fotis ambushed Jennifer in her home on May 24, 2019. Kc Baker, Peoplemag, 8 Feb. 2024
Noun
Read Next Pregnant mom shot to death in ‘ambush,’ Colorado cops say. Paloma Chavez, Sacramento Bee, 1 Mar. 2024 The moment of ambush amidst a blur of evasion, this action photo captures high-speed hunting of sardines by mahi mahi fish. Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 Related Articles California cops shot in 2022 ambush were not verbally warned by dispatcher that suspect had gun, was on PCP The report released Feb. 8 by the California Justice Department examines the confrontation on July 26, 2021, between police and Samuel Soto. Bay Area News Group, The Mercury News, 13 Feb. 2024 Reports of Hamas fighters regrouping in Gaza City created a reasonable risk of an ambush, despite Israel’s firm control of the area. Michael Tobin, Fox News, 12 Feb. 2024 The product was a front-page article on March 17, 2008, that traced personal animosity between Tupac and the rap artist known as Biggie Smalls, or Notorious B.I.G., to a 1994 ambush at a New York recording studio at which Tupac had been robbed and pistol-whipped. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb. 2024 The tiny rooms, barely 60 square feet, provided scant protection from gunmen, who, under the cover of rocket barrages, burst into Israel, stormed nearby towns and villages and set up ambushes on roads. NBC News, 11 Jan. 2024 End of carousel As the conflict rages, Israeli forces and Hamas militants on the ground are waging war on an increasingly complex battlefield — one on which Israel deploys 21st-century drones and robots while Hamas relies on some of the oldest tactics: deception, surprise, ambush. Hazem Balousha, Washington Post, 22 Dec. 2023 On Monday, for example, ten police officers were killed in an hours long battle with gunmen in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the kind of ambush that has become a regular occurrence for security forces. Sophia Saifi, CNN, 6 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ambush.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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

Dictionary Entries Near ambush

Cite this Entry

“Ambush.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambush. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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

More from Merriam-Webster on ambush

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