▪ I. ambuscade, n.
(ˌæmbəˈskeɪd)
Forms: 6 ambuscaid, imboscade, 6– ambuscade.
[a. Fr. embuscade, ad. It. imboscata, or Sp. emboscada, Pg. embuscada (= OFr. embuchée), ppl. deriv. of imboscare (Sp. emboscar, Pg. embuscar, Fr. embucher): see ambush v. and -ade1. For spelling with initial a, see ambush. Almost displaced in 17th c. by the quasi-Spanish form ambuscado.]
1. = ambush 1 (and now more formal as a military term).
| 1582–8 Hist. James VI (1804) 163 Thair was men lying in ambuscaid to haue trappit him. 1591 Garrard Art of Warre 77 In placing Imboscades. 1679 Establ. Test. 22 They post themselves as in a wood, and lie in Ambuscade. 1694 Crowne Regulus iv. 35 Y' entice me into a dangerous ambuscade. 1697 Dryden Eneid vi. (J.) Rous'd the Grecians from their ambuscade. 1757 Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. Wks. X. 176 They formed frequent ambuscades. 1811 Wellington in Gen. Desp. VII. 280 They had been lying in ambuscade for the patroles..for some days; but he contrived to draw them to an ambuscade which he had laid. 1846 Grote Greece III. xxx. 100 To fall into an ambuscade. |
2. The force placed in ambush, the company of liers in wait; = ambush 2.
| a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. III. xv. 454 An Ambuscade in the woods..fell upon them with such fury, that disordered the whole Army. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. (1869) II. xliii. 611 They were assaulted on the flanks by two ambuscades. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles v. xxvii, It waked the lurking ambuscade. |
3. fig. = ambush 4.
| 1794 S. Williams Hist. Vermont 143 All is then caution, stratagem, secrecy, and ambuscade. 1842 Mrs. Gore Fascination 148 In spite of this ambuscade, Martha made other preparatives of defence. 1844 H. Rogers Ess. I. ii. 84 Nothing but the ambuscade of a fallacy. |
▪ II. ambuscade, v.
(æmbəˈskeɪd)
[f. the n.]
1. intr. To lie in ambuscade; to ambush.
| 1592 W. Wyrley Armorie 118 In ruinous house sequestred from the way, We ambuscade. 1848 Kingsley Saint's Trag. v. iii. 33 How! ambuscading? |
2. trans. To conceal in ambush.
| 1853 G. Johnston Nat. Hist. E. Borders I. 141 The broom..was long enough to ambuscade warriors of yore. |