[ad. L. ambulātōri-us of or pertaining to a walker, f. ambulātor, q.v.; cf. Fr. ambulatoire.]
1. Of or pertaining to a walker, or to walking.
1622. Heylyn, Cosmogr., III. (1682), 129. Being at his ambulatory Exercise.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 83. The ambulatory life of herdsmen and shepherds.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., iv. 63. When that man has an object, it is astonishing what ambulatory powers he can develop.
2. Adapted or fitted for walking.
1835. Kirby, Habits & Inst. Anim., II. xvi. 84. The thoracic legs … become also its ambulatory legs.
1852. Dana, Crustacea, I. 10. Feet ambulatory or prehensile.
1877. Sir C. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, I. ii. 132–3. Leaf-like sacs loaded with purple pigment, which fringe the ambulatory disk on either side.
3. Moving from place to place, having no fixed abode; movable.
1622. Howell, Lett., 5 March. His council of state went ambulatory always with him.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., Pref. ¶ 25. They served the ends of God … by their ambulatory life.
a. 1703. Burkitt, On N. T., Acts vii. 50. The tabernacle was an ambulatory temple.
1845. R. W. Hamilton, Pop. Educ., 191. Many of them [schools] are ambulatory, and in the thinly peopled parts are held only during four or five months in farm houses.
1858. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt. Part., I. xxv. 96. While the ambulatory guillotine was doing its work in the provinces.
4. fig. Shifting, not permanent, temporary, mutable. (So in L. and Fr.) Ambulatory will: one capable of revocation.
1621–31. Laud, Serm. (1847), 73. Nor is this ceremony Jewish or ambulatory, to cease with the law.
1651. W. G., trans. Cowel’s Instit., 133. A mans will … according to the Civill Law is ambulatory, or alterable, untill Death.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, France & It., II. 387. They learn to think virtue and vice ambulatory.
1832. J. Austin, Jurispr., I. xxi. 452. Every intention … which regards the future is ambulatory or revocable.
