Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use ambush in a sentence

35 example sentences · noun, verb

Ambush means the act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack or kill by surprise. Example: “I lay in ambush, waiting for my victims.”

Examples of ambush by meaning

nounThe concealed position or state from which a surprise attack is launched.

  • Therefore, why not wait in ambush for Conrad behind the door, and when he entered bring down a chair, or one of the decrepit pictures, smartly on to his head.1922, Agatha Christie, “Chapter 17”, in The Secret Adversary

nounA group of tigers.

  • “Having Chris Palmer part of this ambush of tigers is so exciting.2026 July 21, Madison Hahnen, “Chris Palmer Joins Triple Tigers Records/AKANDO Music”, in Music Row
  • He outwits a positive ambush of tigers who want to eat him up and take his beautiful new clothes1973, Joan E. Cass, Books for the Under Fives, National Book League, page 6

verbTo attack by ambush; to waylay.

  • In the opening 40 minutes Löw’s team had been ambushed here, the world champions run into a state of breathless trauma by a thrillingly vibrant Mexico attack.2018 June 17, Barney Ronay, “Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The...

More sentences with ambush

  • I lay in ambush, waiting for my victims.From the entry lie in ambush
  • The platoon walked into an ambush.From the entry walk into
  • The diapers forces are running and crying like little girls as they were ambushed by Hezb fighters.2024 October 24, @umyaznemo, Twitter, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2025. From the entry Hezb
  • "Kaishao boy?" "They basically used church as an excuse for ambush matchmaking."2023, Mae Coyiuto, Chloe and the Kaishao Boys, pages 74–75. From the entry kaishao
  • It was an ambush that drove the exhausted Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, to tears.2022 November 17, Adam Morton, “Getting rid of fossil fuels at a climate summit is harder than you’d think”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry phase down
  • Just think—be the first testamentor to witness the great Nolan being tricked, defeated, or just plain ambushed.2022, Philip Brice, The Dragon of Illenwell: Testament of Wielders. From the entry testamentor
  • The initial ambush, conducted with small arms, escalated into deployment of heavy armor supported by rocket artillery.2021 March 29, Blake Herzinger, “China’s Military Could Turn Small Clashes Into Major Conflicts”, in Foreign Policy, archived from the…. From the entry Zhenbao Island
  • Additional sentries are keeping watch for any signs of an ambush.2019, Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King, Canongate Books (2020), page 213. From the entry sentry
  • Weir's quarry, Kevin Trudeau, complained about "ambush journalism" when the correspondent stopped him on a Zurich street.2013 June 10, David Bauder, “ABC's 'The Lookout' a new outlet for 'Nightline'”, in Businessweek, retrieved 20 Apr 2014. From the entry ambush journalism
  • Even if their entire line collapses, they fall back in order, setting ambushes as they go.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Turians: Military Doctrine Codex entry. From the entry under fire
  • But the program's success seems to be inspiring others to try their own brand of ambush journalism.2006 May 17, Alessandra Stanley, “Gotcha! 'Dateline' Paves a Walk of Shame for Online Predators”, in New York Times, retrieved 20 Apr 2014. From the entry ambush journalism
  • Victims step forward as well claiming they were ambushed, and so forth.2003, A Modern Caveman, “Hypnosis/Brainwashing Link Probed In Smart Case”, in alt.hypnosis (Usenet). From the entry hypnodomme
  • Coral trout, red with purple spots, lay in wait, ready to ambush unsuspecting prey.1991, Martha Holmes, Sea Trek, BBC Books, page 114. From the entry coral trout
  • There’s always another nonfiction book around the corner, waiting to ambush us with facts both trivial and pivotal.2026 June 26, “The People Are Hungry for Learning”, in House Tour (Random House), archived from the original on 28 Aug 2026. From the entry knowledgemaxx
  • Capitosaurs had pachyostotic (extraheavy) skeletons and probably lived on the bottom of large water bodies as ambush predators.2014, Rainer R. Schoch, Amphibian Evolution: The Life of Early Land Vertebrates. From the entry capitosaur
  • It was from sandbag, to ambush or hit without warning: whether an actual sandbag ever entered the picture was irrelevant.2011 June 2, Jonathon Green, Crooked Talk: Five Hundred Years of the Language of Crime, Random House, →ISBN, page 124. From the entry sandbagger
  • There is a certain quest that you take, that even if you don't walk the overworld map, you will get ambushed.2002 May 9, Zach Levy, “Re: Insane instakill overworld ambush”, in rec.games.roguelike.angband (Usenet). From the entry overworld map
  • The reasoning usually goes along the lines: ' Talk shows, which started out innocently, have degenerated into ambush television'.2002, Toni Johnson-Woods, Big Bother, page 210. From the entry ambush television
  • But the Golden Lion was ambushed by a Naval frigate thinking that a whaler's crew would be useful pressed men.2001, Arabella McIntyre-Brown, Liverpool: The First 1,000 years, page 79. From the entry whaler
  • American forces were ambushed in midcrossing at the river northwest of the town of Bocaue, Bulacan, taking 29 casualties in ten minutes.2024 October 27, Wikipedia contributors, “Campaigns of the Philippine–American War”, in English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation. From the entry midcrossing
  • Arya Stark, fresh off a nigh Cersei-level ambush of the Frey household, comes upon a small campfire surrounded by fresh-faced red cloaks.2017 July 16, Brandon Nowalk, “Chickens and dragons come home to roost on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club. From the entry fresh
  • As every last Frey man swigs their special wine, Walder hypes the cunning it took to invite guests into your home and ambush them.2017 July 16, Brandon Nowalk, “Chickens and Dragons Come Home to Roost on Game of Thrones (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the…. From the entry keel over
  • In Sishui in China’s Shandong province, he ambushed two Japanese transportation vehicles, seized more than 10 rifles and one light machine gun.2015 October 5, Jordan G. Teicher, “Haunting portraits of China’s surviving war veterans”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived…. From the entry Sishui
  • Look at the signs guiding you, look at those who ambush you, even the weather of your own moods defines whether you succeed or not.2011, C. Stephen Foster, Awakening the Actor Within. From the entry compare and despair
  • Sanguinarians have willing donors (known as black swans); they do not prowl around the streets looking to ambush someone like Anne Rice’s vampire Lestat.2008, Rosemary Guiley, Vampires: Mysteries, Legends, And Unexplained Phenomena, page 105. From the entry sanguinarian
  • Politicians have learned to apply a fixed smile to disguise the blind panic as Chaser representative goes about his line in ambush television.2006, The Bulletin - Issues 6527-6535, page 22. From the entry ambush television
  • Following the outbreak at the Ursus Fitness gym in Sai Ying Pun, the government announced two ambush lockdowns on Saturday, and another on Sunday, in the Mid-Levels district.2021 March 15, Candice Chau, “Covid-19: 2 cases found after almost 3,500 people tested in Mid-Levels ‘ambush’ lockdowns”, in Hong Kong…. From the entry Sai Ying Pun
  • We were all facing the door as we waited for the opposing counsel to come in, like a pride of hyenas about to ambush a wounded water buffalo.2020, Carl Weber, Influence, Kensington, page 7. From the entry pride
  • Often the only way you can kill a henned-up gobbler is to use cover or the terrain to slip close enough for an ambush or bushwhack.2009, Brian Lovett, Hunting Tough Turkeys, page 61. From the entry henned-up
  • When Manzanas arrived home from work, the assailant gunned him down from ambush with a volley of pistol shots and escaped across the nearby border to France.1968 September 6, “Spain: The Basque Rebellion”, in Time. From the entry gun down
  • We felt like Athenian sailors waiting for Persian triremes to blunder into the straits of Messina, but we were probably more like Vietcong irregulars waiting to ambush American swiftboat captains.2006, William Sargent, Writing Naturally: A Memoir, →ISBN, page 5. From the entry swiftboat

Meaning of ambush

  1. noun The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack or kill by surprise.
  2. noun An attack launched from a concealed position.
  3. noun The concealed position or state from which a surprise attack is launched.

Full definition of ambush

Questions about ambush in a sentence

How do you use ambush in a sentence?
Ambush is used as a noun and verb. For example: “I lay in ambush, waiting for my victims.”
What is a short sentence with ambush?
“The platoon walked into an ambush.”
What does ambush mean?
Ambush means the act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack or kill by surprise.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ambush (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use ambush in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ambush. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.