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ambuscade
| ˈæm.bəˌskeɪd |Note
Vocab
Source
Plutarch's Lives, Volume I · Plutarch, Aubrey Stewart, and George Long
Translation
ambush; a hidden attack from concealment
Details
noun
- an attack made by people who hide and wait for someone to pass by.The soldiers were caught in an ambuscade as they moved through the narrow pass.
- the hidden position or arrangement from which such an attack is made.The scouts discovered the enemy's ambuscade in the woods before the main force arrived.
verb
- to attack from a hidden place by surprise; to lie in wait for and ambush.The bandits planned to ambuscade the supply train at dawn.
Derivatives
- ambuscader noun
- ambuscado noun
Origin
From Middle English ambuscade and earlier ambushment, via Old French embuscade (Italian imboscata), ultimately from a Germanic root meaning “bush” or “woods”—originally “to place in a wood,” later generalized to any surprise attack from concealment; now chiefly literary or historical.