{
    "term": "ambush",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "the act of hiding and waiting for somebody and then making a surprise attack on them",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "Two soldiers were killed in a terrorist ambush."
                },
                {
                    "text": "They were **lying in ambush**, waiting for the aid convoy."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The government was defeated in its attempt to pass the law by an opposition ambush."
                },
                {
                    "text": "We ran into an ambush in the valley."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The soldiers set up an ambush on the road."
                },
                {
                    "text": "They staged an ambush on an army patrol."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["War and conflict"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["deadly", "enemy"],
                "verb + ambush": ["lay", "prepare", "set up"],
                "ambush + verb": ["take place"],
                "preposition": ["in an/​the ambush", "ambush on"],
                "phrases": ["lie in ambush", "wait in ambush"]
            }
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈæmbʊʃ/",
                "audio": "am/ambush/ambush__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈæmbʊʃ/",
                "audio": "am/ambush/ambush__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Middle English (in the sense ‘place troops in hiding in order to surprise an enemy’): from Old French embusche (noun), embuschier (verb), based on a late Latin word meaning ‘to place in a wood’; related to bush."
}