different between ambush vs drygulch

English

Etymology

From Middle English enbuschen, from Old French enbuscier, anbuchier (verb) (whence Middle French embusche (noun)), from Old French en- + Vulgar Latin boscus (“wood”), from Frankish *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambuscade. The change to am- from earlier forms in en- is unexplained. More at bush.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian, US, UK) IPA^(key): /?æm.b??/

Noun

ambush (plural ambushes)

1. The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack by surprise.
2. An attack launched from a concealed position.
3. The troops posted in a concealed place, for attacking by surprise; those who lie in wait.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

ambush (third-person singular simple present ambushes, present participle ambushing, simple past and past participle ambushed)

1. (transitive) To station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy.
   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     By ambush'd men behind their temple laid / We have the king of Mexico betray'd.

2. (transitive) To attack by ambush; to waylay.

Derived terms

• ambushable

Translations

Further reading

• ambush at OneLook Dictionary Search
• ambush in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Alternative forms

• dry gulch
• dry-gulch

Etymology

Because in the American West, outlaws often killed people as they passed through a dry gulch; or because cattle rustlers drove stolen animals off the edge of such a gulch. (ref. John Ayto 1998)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?????lt?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d?a?.??lt?/

Verb

drygulch (third-person singular simple present drygulches, present participle drygulching, simple past and past participle drygulched)

1. (US, slang) To murder; to attack, assault, especially in an ambush.
   • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin 2010, p. 77:

     ‘Then one of them got into the car and dry-gulched me.’

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 722-3:

     You've delivered yourselves into the hands of capitalists and Christers, and anybody wants to change any of that steps across ’at frontera, they're drygulched on the spot—though I'm sure you'd know how to avoid that, Dwayne.

Derived terms

• drygulcher

Translations