ambulancen.
/ˈambjᵿləns/, /ˈambjᵿln̩s/, U.S. /ˈæmbjələns/ 1. A mobile field hospital which follows the movements of an army. Also: a corps trained to collect wounded soldiers from a battlefield and take them to a field hospital (also as a mass noun). Now historical.The term became known during the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), but the first mobile field hospitals appear to have been used by French troops some years before.
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the world > health and disease > healing > places for the sick or injured > [noun] > hospital or infirmary > military or field hospital
field station1610
field hospital1690
military hospital1747
general hospital1775
ambulance1800
station hospital1827
base hospital1864
clearing-hospital1914
clearing-station1915
MASH1950
1800 tr. J. Petit Marengo xxvi. 71 The Colonel..had his surgeon called, and the wounded prisoner was dressed in his presence, and carried to the Ambulance.
1814 R. W. Hall tr. D. J. Larrey Mem. Mil. Surg. I. 78 This ambulance..was made up of three divisions... Each of these was arranged in the following manner: One surgeon major of the first class, [etc.].
1815 J. Waller tr. D. J. Larrey Mem. Mil. Surg. I. i. 3 Two divisions of ambulance followed the two wings of the army.
1819 Edinb. Rev. 31 310 These ambulances in their most perfect form consist of a mounted corps of surgeons and inferior assistants..to remove them [sc. the wounded] to other ambulances or temporary hospitals.
1855 R. Barnston Let. 1 Aug. in W. Barnston & R. Barnston Lett. from Crimea & India (1904) 111 I took him in a cart to the nearest French ambulance, where the doctors did him up properly.
1915 W. Boyd Let. 3 Apr. in With Field Ambulance at Ypres (1916) 36 We..made the acquaintance of the ambulance whom we were to relieve on the morrow.
1992 J. S. Haller Farmcarts to Fords i. 17 To each division of infantry was attached an ambulance consisting of five line officers, six surgeons, three apothecaries, twenty male nurses, and an instrument maker and assistant.
2. Originally: a covered wagon on springs used to transport wounded soldiers from a battlefield to a field hospital (now historical). In later use: a vehicle used to transport sick or injured people to hospital or other treatment facilities, esp. one carrying specialist equipment and crew trained to respond to medical emergencies.army ambulance, field ambulance, motor ambulance, etc.: see the first element.
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the world > health and disease > healing > transport for the sick or injured > [noun] > ambulance
ambulance1825
ambulance car1904
meat wagon1925
gurney1939
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > other vehicles according to specific use > [noun] > ambulance
ambulance1825
blood wagon1922
meat wagon1925
gurney1939
ambo1974
1825 London Mag. Sept. 35 Towards evening several ambulances came down the Rue Rochechouart full of wounded French, and one cart laden with the slain.
1898 Daily News 27 July 2/5 A horsed ambulance was speedily brought to the court.
1931 N. C. Fletcher St. John Ambulance Assoc. 24 There were treated 247 cases, of which 41 required removal by ambulance.
1966 N. Coward Diary 23 Jan. (2000) 622 Lilli hysterical and insisting that I go immediately in an ambulance to Basle to be diagnosed by Professor Nissen.
2009 Dunoon Observer & Argyllshire Standard 6 Mar. 8/1 When my neighbour suddenly took ill, I phoned for an ambulance.
3. U.S. A large covered wagon used to transport passengers over long distances; a prairie schooner. Now historical.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > cart, carriage, or wagon > [noun] > covered > as used by emigrants in America
prairie schooner1837
prairie ship1847
prairie wagon1848
ambulance1850
prairie clipper1870
1850 J. McClellan Let. 10 June in Rep. Secretary Interior in Relation to Boundary U.S. & Mexico 71 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (32nd Congr., 1st Sess.: Senate Executive Doc. 119) (1852) XIV I have requested Mr. Bartlett to have the ten light wagons and four ambulances made on your plan.
1875 Fur, Fin & Feather 105 If he wishes, he can procure..an ambulance fitted up with the necessary toilet arrangements.
1899 T. W. Hall Tales 95 Once in a while she caught sight of a muffled figure in an ambulance that stopped for water for its thirsty mules.
1943 L. Wood Walter Reed 23/2 The road had turned out to be so rough that any progress faster than a walk threatened to shake both the ambulance..and its occupants apart.
2004 E. M. Coffman Regulars v. 172 If schools were nearby, the old frontier ambulance, the Dougherty wagon, drawn by horses or mules took children to and from school.
Phrases
colloquial. to go home in an ambulance (and variants): to get a severe beating; esp. in you're going home in an ambulance, used to threaten violence against a person or group.Popularized in the United Kingdom in the second half of the 20th cent. through its use in chants by supporters at Association Football matches, chiefly to threaten opposing away supporters, esp. as you're going home in a —— ambulance, with interpolated expletive (see e.g. quot. 1990), or with location indicated (see e.g. quot. 1992).
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1916 R. H. Barbour Rivals for Team xvi. 195 Well, I said, ‘Lambert, if you make me lose my temper you'll go home in an ambulance. Now quit it!’ He did, too. We didn't have any trouble after that.
1990 Independent 12 Nov. 30/8 At least 400 rival fans from Millwall and West Ham did battle with police and each other... The effect on young minds of the fighting and thousands of adults bellowing at each other, ‘You're going home in a fucking ambulance’, is the stuff of which psychiatrists' nightmares are made.
1992 N. Hornby Fever Pitch (1998) 78 ‘You're going to get your fucking heads kicked in’... For a good fifteen years it was the formal response to any goal scored by any away team at any football ground in the country (variations at Highbury were ‘You're going home in a London ambulance’ [etc.]).
2019 @danhett 20 June in twitter.com (accessed 27 Sept. 2019) If he tried grabbing a woman like that around here he'd be deservedly going home in an ambulance.
Compounds
C1. General use as a modifier, chiefly in sense 2, as ambulance cart, ambulance siren, ambulance stretcher, etc.The earliest examples probably relate to sense 1.
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1854 Westmorland Gaz. & Kendal Advertiser 21 Jan. 2/1 At a great military hospital in Paris the attendants are daily exercised..in the ambulance duties..that would be required of them in action.
1860 R. Delafield Rep. Art of War in Europe 68 The ambulance stretcher is composed of..two wooden frames, the lower one with handles, carrying an upper one.
1879 Citizen (Gloucester) 9 Oct. 4 A young man..was crushed between the buffers of two trucks. An ambulance cart was immediately procured.
1918 M. McArthur Let. 26 May in L. Housman War Lett. Fallen Englishmen (2002) 184 They spoke..of the Ambulance Girls..out in the thick of it, picking up wounded.
1976 North Hills (Pa.) News-Record 3 Mar. 15/1 During 1975, the company answered 106 alarms and 418 ambulance calls.
2010 New Yorker 2 Aug. 18/3 One of the loudest and busiest intersections in the Bronx, where..trains shriek on elevated tracks overhead..and ambulance sirens..Doppler by.
C2.
ambulance aeroplane n. an aeroplane used to transport sick or injured people; cf. ambulance airplane n., ambulance plane n.
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the world > health and disease > healing > transport for the sick or injured > [noun] > aircraft
ambulance aeroplane1915
ambulance airplane1918
medevac1966
society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > [noun] > aircraft for other specific uses
ambulance aeroplane1915
ambulance airplane1918
ambulance plane1918
air ambulance1920
firebomber1938
crop-duster1939
grasshopper1939
water bomber1956
weather plane1962
bird dog1965
1915 Internat. Clinics 25th Ser. 1 235 Ambulance Aëroplanes.—These were first suggested by Colonel Cody, who died by the fall of his machine, but his suggestion to the British War Office took effect and a specially-built machine was instituted.
1925 World's Health July 282 Ambulance aeroplanes are at present rendering remarkable services in Morocco.
2008 Sun Herald (Sydney) (Nexis) 27 July 17 An ambulance aeroplane was dispatched and within hours he was on the operating table.
ambulance airplane n. chiefly North American an airplane used to transport sick or injured people; cf. ambulance aeroplane n., ambulance plane n.See also slightly earlier airplane ambulance (see quot. 1917).
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the world > health and disease > healing > transport for the sick or injured > [noun] > aircraft
ambulance aeroplane1915
ambulance airplane1918
medevac1966
society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > [noun] > aircraft for other specific uses
ambulance aeroplane1915
ambulance airplane1918
ambulance plane1918
air ambulance1920
firebomber1938
crop-duster1939
grasshopper1939
water bomber1956
weather plane1962
bird dog1965
1917 N.Y. Times 27 Sept. 6/6 Airplane ambulance in France a success. Two passengers on stretchers in 15-mile test flight find no jolting.]
1918 Daily Huronite (Huron, S. Dakota) 26 Aug. 2/4 Successful experiments with ambulance airplanes at Gerstner field..led to their introduction into nine fields.
1941 Med. Field Man. (U.S. War Dept.) 139 If the theater of operations and zone of the interior are contiguous,..large ambulance airplanes may evacuate sick and wounded from..the combat..zone.
2005 Contra Costa (Calif.) Times (Nexis) 1 Sept. f4 The child was driven to a Baton Rouge, La., airport 75 miles away. An ambulance airplane..was waiting to fly him to Fort Worth's Spinks Airport.
ambulance chase v. [after ambulance chaser n.] slang (originally U.S.) intransitive (of a lawyer) to seek or try to obtain clients who have suffered injury, loss, etc., in order to profit from compensation claims; (also occasionally transitive) to seek or pursue (a client) for this purpose.
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1930 Wisconsin State Jrnl. 13 Feb. 3/5 There never was a doubt in the mind of every honest individual that I never ambulance chased.
1937 M. E. Marten & ‘N. Cross’ Doctor looks at Murder iv. 145 A compensation lawyer who..ambulance-chased every worker who took sick and seemed likely to die.
2011 R. S. Ginsburg in R. S. Ginsburg et al. Understanding & Using Networks for Law Pract. Devel. vi. 65 All lawyers seem to know the ‘rule’ that attorneys are not supposed to ambulance chase.
ambulance chaser n. slang (originally U.S.) a lawyer who actively seeks clients who have suffered injury, loss, etc., in order to profit from compensation claims.
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1896 Sun (N.Y.) 30 May 7/2 The ‘ambulance chaser’ who waits to learn of an accident from the newspapers is regarded now as a very unenterprising lawyer.
1946 J. H. Cohen They builded Better than they Knew i. 4 An ambulance-chaser rushed up, put his card in her hand and said, ‘Mammy, you can recover damages for this.’
2011 Independent (Nexis) 10 Sept. 54 If the ambulance chasers can't simply pay for details of people who have been in an accident, they won't find it so easy to sign up clients.
ambulance chasing n. and adj. slang (originally U.S.) (a) n. the practice, by a lawyer, of actively seeking clients who have suffered injury, loss, etc., in order to profit from compensation claims; (b) adj. (of a lawyer) that actively seeks clients who have suffered injury, loss, etc., in order to profit from compensation claims.
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1897 Sun (N.Y.) 5 Aug. 7/3 An account of the growth..of that branch of legal practice known as ‘ambulance chasing’.
1899 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 27 Aug. 13/4 There are a number of ambulance chasing lawyers in this city.
1951 J. Jones From Here to Eternity xlvi. 706 Maybe that was the ambulance chasing bastard that had been watering his whiskey.
2010 Times 19 June 48/2 We've got to ban the ambulance-chasing.
ambulance class n. a lesson or course in providing first aid or emergency medical treatment; (now usually) spec. a training session or course for the crew of an ambulance.
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the world > health and disease > healing > art or science of medicine > medical training > [noun] > first-aid class
ambulance class1878
1878 P. Shepherd Handbk. Aids for Injuries Introd. p. xiii I have hurriedly arranged the following Manual for the use of..Ambulance Classes.
1950 Nottingham Evening Post 3 Oct. 4/2 At our ambulance class recently we were discussing the great use of iodine in the past for first aid work.
2000 Spokesman Rev. (Spokane, Washington) (Nexis) 4 Sept. a8 The Libby volunteer ambulance service will offer a first responder ambulance class this month.
ambulance crew n. a team of trained ambulance staff who give emergency medical care to sick or injured people and transport them to hospital.
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1889 Sun (Indianapolis) 25 Oct. (Fourth ed.) The ambulance crew was unable to learn the [poisoned] man's name.
1985 Mother Jones July 23/1 The ambulance crew worked on him all the way down to town, but I think he was dead already.
2019 Irish Times (Nexis) 2 Aug. 7 Three units of the county fire service attended at the scene of the crash along with ambulance crews and gardaí.
ambulance driver n. a person who drives an ambulance; (in later use) spec. one trained to provide emergency medical care to people who are seriously ill or injured, with the aim of stabilizing them before they are taken to hospital.Originally (and still frequently) in the context of transporting the wounded to hospital in a war zone.Terms such as EMT or paramedic are now usually preferred in the case of a person trained to provide emergency medical care (see e.g. quot. 1997).
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the world > health and disease > healing > healer > paramedic > [noun] > ambulance personnel
ambulanceman1854
ambulance driver1855
ambulancier1871
zambuk1918
1855 Daily News 14 Mar. 6/1 [At Sebastapol] the ambulance drivers were old men very much addicted to drinking.
1918 Boston Post 7 Feb. 9/3 Some of us [sc. injured soldiers] wished that a shell would..end our misery... Fine fellows, those ambulance drivers, a lot of them go West too.
1975 N.Z. Med. Jrnl. 82 192/2 The ambulance driver has skilfully assisted the doctor with such procedures as infusion and resuscitation.
1997 P. Canning Paramedic (1998) 20 The worst insult that can be hurled at an EMT or paramedic is to call him an ambulance driver. They are medical professionals, subject to continual education, testing, and medical oversight.
2019 Toronto Star (Nexis) 28 July a8 Two medics and an ambulance driver were killed when an airstrike targeted their vehicle.
ambulanceman n. (originally) an attendant or assistant attached to a field hospital; (in later use) a person (esp. a man) who drives an ambulance or who is a member of an ambulance crew.
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the world > health and disease > healing > healer > paramedic > [noun] > ambulance personnel
ambulanceman1854
ambulance driver1855
ambulancier1871
zambuk1918
1854 Lancet 4 Nov. 343/2 He had..his ambulance men to convey the stores from the landing-place to the hospitals.
1864 Daily Tel. 3 Mar. 5/3 Just behind these troops..came the ambulance men carrying the stretchers.
1954 Sydney Morning Herald 16 Aug. 4/3 Pain-killing trilene gas was given to a man to-day while an ambulanceman released his right leg from the spokes of a crashed motor cycle.
2010 Times 21 Jan. 32/2 I know at least one strikebreaking ambulanceman who left after colleagues made life unbearable.
ambulance officer n. (a) an army officer attached to a field hospital (now historical); (b) (chiefly Australian and New Zealand) a member of an ambulance crew; a paramedic.
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1861 Sheffield & Rotherham Independent 24 Dec. 2/5 For six-and-thirty hours, none of the ambulance officers could be said to have taken either food or rest.
1898 Clarence & Richmond Examiner (Grafton, New S. Wales) 3 Sept. 2 In the kitchen downstairs was found a little boy..with a great wound in the forehead. He was handed over to the ambulance officers at once, and removed to the Sydney Hospital.
2014 Northern Star (New S. Wales) (Nexis) 10 Oct. [The police officer] told the court he heard an ambulance officer say ‘I will call it. Time of death is 3.45 pm.’
2018 R. Niemi 100 Great War Movies 171 Author Christopher Landon was a British ambulance officer.., well familiar with..the rigors of life in the North African desert, fighting Rommel's Afrika Korps.
ambulance plane n. a plane used to transport sick or injured people; cf. ambulance aeroplane n., ambulance airplane n.
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society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > [noun] > aircraft for other specific uses
ambulance aeroplane1915
ambulance airplane1918
ambulance plane1918
air ambulance1920
firebomber1938
crop-duster1939
grasshopper1939
water bomber1956
weather plane1962
bird dog1965
1918 Muscatine (Iowa) Jrnl. 26 Aug. 1/3 Successful experiments with the ambulance plane in Gerstner field, Lake Charles,..led to their introduction at nine Texas fields.
1944 Life 11 Sept. 1/2 (caption) Ambulance planes may fly wounded men home from halfway around the world.
2011 Sunshine Coast Daily (Queensland) (Nexis) 9 Aug. 11 Two of the injured were flown home to Britain in ambulance planes.
ambulance service n. the provision of ambulances to take people (originally wounded soldiers) to and from hospital as required, esp. in an emergency; a particular system of ambulance provision; also figurative.
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the world > health and disease > healing > medical services and administration > [noun] > ambulance service
ambulance service1854
1854 Blackburn Standard 8 Nov. Hospital arrangements and ambulance service have been examined and reformed, or will be reformed.
1903 Encycl. Amer. I. at Ambulance The first city ambulance service was inaugurated by the Bellevue Hospital authorities in New York in December 1869.
1962 Daily Tel. 15 June 26 The ‘ambulance service’ run by the Co-operative Wholesale Society to take over and rescue failing retail societies.
2006 Health Service Jrnl. 20 Apr. 30/2 In common with the rest of the ambulance service, the culture at the trust was a historic command and control hierarchy.
ambulance train n. now chiefly historical a train of ambulance wagons; (also) a railway train equipped for transporting wounded soldiers.
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1854 Morning Chron. 27 Oct. 5/2 The same day the ambulance train arrived from Varna.
1911 Encycl. Brit. I. 802/1 From the field hospital he is transferred..by the ambulance train to the general hospital at the advanced base of operations, and from there in due time in another train to the base of operations at the coast.
2016 Church Times 16 Sept. 23/5 Plans to convert existing carriages, and construct new ones for use as ambulance trains, had been made even before the war broke out.
ambulance wagon n. now historical a covered wagon used to transport sick or injured people (esp. soldiers) to hospital.In quot. 1832: a wagon transporting the personnel and equipment of a mobile field hospital (see sense 1); in this context perhaps not a fixed collocation.
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1832 J. C. Mercer tr. D. J. Larrey Surg. Mem. Campaigns Russia, Germany, & France 24 A prolongation of our sojourn at Giad..gave opportunity to several of our ambulance waggons [Fr. plusieurs caissons de nos ambulances] to rejoin us; and I was fortunate..in being capable of furnishing the requisite succour in the battle which was about to take place.]
1837 Times 29 May 4/6 Those of the wounded officers and men, the state of whose wounds permitted their removal, came in at the same time in ambulance waggons.
1900 W. S. Churchill in Morning Post 17 Feb. 8/1 White-hooded, red-crossed ambulance waggons.
2012 P. A. DiPrima Paramedic Survival Guide i. 2 The evolution of the ambulance took yet another turn during the American Civil War where ambulance wagons were too few, often late, and driven by civilians.
ambulancewoman n. [after ambulanceman n.] a woman involved in the transportation of sick or injured people (originally soldiers) to hospital; a female ambulance driver or member of an ambulance crew.In quot. 1865: a woman permitted to travel in an ambulance to distribute provisions to soldiers.
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1865 Sanitary Comm. Bull. (Philadelphia) 1 Feb. 974/1 She..drew his attention to certain constant visitors, called ambulance women, as the cause of the trouble.
1872 J. V. Weber tr. P. Vésinier Hist. Commune Paris ii. iii. 266 A young ambulance woman had been assaulted, violated, and massacred by the criminal, savage, and degraded soldiers of Versailles.
1988 P. Sayer Comforts of Madness (1989) i. 14 The two ambulance women shrugged off any suggestion of assistance.
2013 Derby Evening Tel. (Nexis) 18 May 7 A drunken patient who groped an ambulancewoman as he was being treated has been ordered to carry out 80 hours community work.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
ambulancev.
/ˈambjᵿləns/, /ˈambjᵿln̩s/, U.S. /ˈæmbjələns/ 1. transitive. To transport (a sick or injured person) by ambulance. Frequently in passive, and with adverbial complement.
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1861 Lowell (Mass.) Daily Citizen & News 10 Oct. The three artillerists..were at once ambulanced to the hospital.
1916 Philadelphia Inquirer 26 Mar. 5/3 The guest of honor went from this gay scene to the business of ambulancing the sadly wounded soldiers from the trenches.
1958 R. Macaulay Last Lett. to Friend (1962) 264 I was ambulanced to Charing Cross Hospital.
2003 Backwoods Home Mag. Nov. 9/2 We had a young cowboy ambulanced out of the arena this year.
2. intransitive. To transport sick or injured people by ambulance; to serve as a member of an ambulance crew; to drive an ambulance.
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1915 D. H. Lawrence Let. 3 June (1962) I. 348 Do you mean you'd join the Quakers ambulancing?
1940 R. Macaulay Lett. to Sister (1964) 111 I rather wish I was ambulancing tonight.
2016 @DixielandMedic 9 Dec. in twitter.com (accessed 21 Feb. 2019) Out here ambulancing in the snow.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2020; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1800
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