ambulances

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of ambulance.

   Several ambulances were dispatched to the highway pileup.

   The city expanded its fleet of ambulances after the budget increase.

   Note

   A regular plural that carries every meaning of the noun, not only the emergency vehicle. In British use, ambulances can also carry the dead to a mortuary. In older British writing the word could mean stretchers, and in older American writing, covered wagons. The same spelling also serves as the verb form (the team ambulances the injured), so the grammar of the sentence decides which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of ambulance.

   The charity ambulances wounded civilians from the front line to safer towns.

   Whenever a climber falls, the rescue team ambulances them to the nearest trauma center.

   Note

   Here the noun has been turned into a verb meaning to carry someone by ambulance. It is transitive, so it needs an object: a rescue team ambulances a climber to the hospital, and never simply ambulances. The -s ending matches a singular subject such as he, she, the charity or the service, as with any regular present-tense verb.

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