bushment

bushment

English

Etymology

Aphetic form of abushment, ambushment.

Noun

bushment (plural bushments)

1. (obsolete) An ambush.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced)​, Thomas Malory, “Capitulum III”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XIX, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034, page 220:

     And by the way Sir Meliagrance laid in an embushment the best archers that he might get in his country, to the number of thirty, to await upon Sir Launcelot, charging them that if they saw such a manner of knight come by the way upon a white horse, that in any wise they slay his horse, but in no manner of wise have not ado with him bodily, [...]

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. (obsolete) The troops concealed in an ambush.
3. (obsolete) A surprise party; a company of soldiers secretly deployed.
   • c. 1541, The Chronicle of Calais, John Gough Nichols, Camden Society No. 35, London 1846:

     The first day of August a bushement of Frenchemen came to the cawsey but a myle and halfe out of Caleys, where they brenned howses, toke many men prisonars, droffe away horses […].