ambushed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of ambush.

   Insurgents ambushed the supply convoy at a narrow bend in the mountain road.

   The zebras had been ambushed by lions waiting in the tall grass near the water hole.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty: the simple past (insurgents ambushed the convoy) and the past participle after have or be (the convoy was ambushed). It usually reports the attack itself, but the verb can also mean posting people out of sight, so men ambushed in a thicket may be the ones lying in wait rather than their victims. Before a noun, as in an ambushed patrol, it works as the adjective.

2. 2
   victim of attackadjective

   Having been the target of a surprise attack made from a hidden position.

   Reinforcements reached the ambushed convoy within the hour, but two trucks were already burning.

   Ambushed and outnumbered, the patrol fell back toward the river.

3. 3
   caught off guardadjectivefiguratively

   Hit by a shock one was not prepared for, as though caught in a surprise attack.

   The senator felt ambushed when the interviewer produced emails she had never seen.

   Looking ambushed, my sister put down her fork when our parents announced they were selling the family home.

   Similarstunned, shocked

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