[a. mod. Fr. ambulance (formerly hôpital ambulant walking hospital); f. L. ambulant-em walking, as if ad. L. *ambulantia: see -ANCE.] Not in Craig, 1847; app. came into general use during the Crimean War.
1. A moving hospital, which follows an army in its movements, so as to afford the speediest possible succour to the wounded. Often attrib.
1798. Obs. Exp. Buonaparte, 65. At length arrived at head-quarters, which served as the Ambulance to the army.
1819. Edin. Rev., XXXI. 310. These ambulances in their most perfect form consist of a mounted corps of surgeons and inferior assistants … to remove them [the wounded] to other ambulances or temporary hospitals.
1833. Penny Cycl., I. 425. Ambulance, a French word applied to the moving hospitals which are attached to every French army.
1860. Tristram, Gt. Sahara, i. 9. Ambulance waggons laden with sick and wounded.
1864. Daily Tel., 3 March. The ambulance men carrying the stretchers.
2. An ambulance waggon or cart; a covered vehicle on springs for conveying the wounded off the field of battle, etc.
1854. Manch. Guard., 25 Nov. The ambulances as fast as they came up received their load of sufferers.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, lviii. 312. I passed an ambulance this moment.
