a. [f. L. ambigu-us doubtful, driving hither and thither (f. ambig-ĕre, f. amb- both ways + ag-ĕre to drive) + -OUS.] The objective meanings, though second in Latin, seem earliest in Eng.

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  I.  Objectively.

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  1.  Doubtful, questionable; indistinct, obscure, not clearly defined.

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1528.  More, Heresyes, IV. Wks. 1557, 247/2. If it wer nowe doutful & ambiguous whether the church of Christ wer in the right rule of doctrine or not.

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1573.  Murray, Let., in Wodrow Soc. Misc. (1844), 289. Cairfull for the gude ordour of the Kirk in thingis ambiguouss.

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c. 1800.  K. White, Contempl., 133. Faint ambiguous shadows fall.

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1851.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. 2. v. § 10. Even the most dexterous distances of the old masters … are ambiguous.

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  2.  Of words or other significant indications: Admitting more than one interpretation, or explanation; of double meaning, or of several possible meanings; equivocal. (The commonest use.)

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1532.  More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 1557, 437/1. This englishe word knowledge is ambiguous and doubtfull.

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1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (1869), 267. The ambiguous, or figure of sence incertaine, as if one should say Thomas Tayler saw William Tyler dronke, it is indifferent to thinke either th’one or th’other dronke.

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1671.  Milton, P. R., I. 435. Answers … dark, Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding.

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1752.  Johnson, Rambl., No. 192, ¶ 8. The gentlemen … irritated me with ambiguous insults.

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1853.  Maurice, Proph. & Kings, xvii. 288. I do not rest anything upon tenses. Every reader of the prophets must feel how ambiguous they are.

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1867.  A. J. Ellis, E. E. Pron., I. i. 25. The Welsh alphabet … having only one ambiguous letter, y.

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  3.  Of doubtful position or classification, as partaking of two characters or being on the boundary line between.

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1603.  Florio, Montaigne (1634), 294. Mungrell and ambiguous shapes.

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1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 473. Ambiguous between sea and land The river-horse and scaly crocodile.

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1756.  Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xx. 20. His character became fully known … and was no longer ambiguous to either faction.

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1839.  Murchison, Silur. Syst., 418. Stratified rocks of ambiguous character.

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  II.  Subjectively.

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  † 4.  Of persons: Wavering or uncertain as to course or conduct; hesitating, doubtful. Obs.

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1550.  Nicolls, Thucyd., VI. xvii. 175 (R.). Among eople that be ambiguous or doubtefulle and that perceyue theymselfe assieged and oppressedde more and more.

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1649.  Milton, Eikonok., 239. Thus shall they be too and fro, doubtfull and ambiguous in all thir doings.

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  5.  Of things: Wavering or uncertain in direction or tendency; of doubtful or uncertain issue.

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1612.  Shelton, Don Quix., I. II. v. 90. That she do favour and protect him in that ambiguous Trance which he undertakes.

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1813.  Scott, Rokeby, I. xii. The eddying tides of conflict wheeled Ambiguous.

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1850.  Mrs. Browning, Prom. Bd., Poems I. 184. Do not cast Ambiguous paths, Prometheus, for my feet.

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  6.  Hence, Insecure in its indications; not to be relied upon.

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1756.  Burke, Subl. & B., Wks. 1842, I. 26. The taste, that most ambiguous of the senses.

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  7.  Of persons, oracles, etc.: Using words of doubtful or double meaning.

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1566.  Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 370. To no point wald sche answer directlie; bot in all thingis sche was … ambigua.

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1697.  Dryden, Æneid, VI. 150 (J.).

        Th’ ambiguous god, who rul’d her lab’ring breast,
In these mysterious words his mind express’d:
Some truths reveal’d, in terms involv’d the rest.

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a. 1725.  Pope, Odyss., I. 490. Antinous … Constrain’d a smile and thus ambiguous spoke.

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1864.  Swinburne, Atalanta, 1500. What mutterest thou with thine ambiguous mouth.

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