ambulance
/ˈæmbjᵿl(ə)n(t)s/ noun, verb
Forms ambulances ambulancing ambulanced
- noun An emergency vehicle designed for transporting seriously ill or injured people to a hospital.
- noun (military) A mobile field hospital.
- noun (UK) A vehicle used for the transportation of dead people, typically to a mortuary.
- noun (chiefly UK, obsolete) Synonym of stretcher, a litter used for medical transport.
- noun (US, obsolete) Synonym of covered wagon.
- verb (transitive) To transport by ambulance.
Synonyms
band-aid buggy blood box body box bone box meat wagon private ambulance stretcher covered wagon
Etymology
Borrowed from French ambulance, which replaced hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) via the suffix -ance, from Latin ambulō (“to walk; to go about”).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [F. ambulance, hôpital ambulant, fr. L. ambulare to walk. See Amble.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ambulance”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details