Origin: Latin suffix -ance
Ambulance has 3 different meanings across 1 category:
a vehicle that takes people to and from hospitals
"The ambulance arrived quickly to take the injured driver directly to the hospital."
An emergency vehicle designed for transporting seriously ill or injured people to a hospital.
"The siren wailed as the ambulance raced toward the accident scene to transport the critically injured victim to the nearest hospital."
In plain English: An ambulance is a special vehicle used to quickly transport sick or injured people to the hospital.
"The ambulance arrived quickly to take the injured man to the hospital."
Usage: Use as a noun when referring to the emergency vehicle; use as a verb to describe the action of transporting someone via ambulance. Example sentence: "The paramedics will ambulance you to the nearest hospital."
To transport by ambulance.
"The paramedics quickly transported him to the hospital by ambulance after his car accident."
In plain English: To ambulance someone means to carry them quickly and carefully, usually because they are hurt or sick.
"The news report will ambulance this story with sensational headlines before anyone has seen the facts themselves."
The word comes from the French ambulance, originally meaning "moving hospital." It entered English with this specific sense of a mobile medical facility.