• (Australia, America, British) IPA: /ˈæm.bʊʃ/

ambush (plural ambushes)

1. The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack by surprise.
2. An attack launched from a concealed position.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 2”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege / Or ambush from the deep.

3. The troops posted in a concealed place, for attacking by surprise; those who lie in wait.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Joshu 8:19 ↗:

• Russian: заса́да
• Spanish: emboscada

• French: embuscade
• Italian: imboscata
• Portuguese: emboscada
• Russian: заса́да
• Spanish: emboscada

• French: embuscade
• Russian: заса́да

ambush (ambushes, present participle ambushing; past and past participle ambushed)

1. (transitive) To station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy.

   • By ambushed men behind their temple laid / We have the king of Mexico betrayed.

2. (transitive) To attack by ambush; to waylay.

• German: einen Hinterhalt legen
• Portuguese: emboscar
• Russian: устра́ивать заса́ду
• Spanish: emboscar

• French: embusquer
• German: aus dem Hinterhalt angreifen
• Portuguese: emboscar
• Russian: напада́ть из заса́ды
• Spanish: emboscar