Word
ambulance
Phoneticsam·bu·lance
US/ˈæmbjəɫəns/
UK/ˈæmbjʊləns/
Definitions
01emergency vehicle
n. a vehicle used to take people who are very sick or hurt to a hospital quickly.
n. a vehicle equipped for transporting the sick or injured, usually providing medical care during transit.
“The ambulance arrived within minutes and the paramedics began helping the driver.”
“Witnesses called for an ambulance immediately after the collision, as several passengers appeared to have sustained serious injuries.”
Synonyms
03to transport by ambulance
v. to move someone using an ambulance.
v. to transport a patient via an ambulance vehicle. This transitive use is less common than the noun form.
“The patient was ambulanced to the city hospital for specialist surgery.”
“Due to the severity of the spinal trauma, the victim was carefully ambulanced to the regional trauma centre under constant supervision.”
Formal · Technical
Real-World Examples
“Of 36 people treated by ambulance services in the city of Split, about 15.5 miles to the north, 14 were admitted to hospital and seven had life-threatening injuries, local health officials said.” “Hundreds of messages were sent across 10 days on the pager network by ambulance trusts, hospitals and fire services.” Etymology
Borrowed from French ambulance, which replaced hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) via the suffix -ance, from Latin ambulō (“to walk; to go about”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Domains
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/ambulance