zambuk

plural zambuks · alternative zambuck · alternative Zambuk

1. AustraliaNew ZealandinformalA first-aider, especially one from St. John Ambulance attending at a sports event.

   We better tell them the shooting is over, otherwise the cops won't let the zambucks come up to get Cathy.

   2010, Alix Bosco [pseudonym; Greg McGee], chapter 47, in Slaughter Falls, [Sydney, N.S.W.]: ReadHowYouWant, →ISBN, pages 414–415

   5 more examples

   “C’mon ‘Zambuk,’ what’s keeping yer!” the old-time football crowds would yell when one over-eager barracker k.o.’d an opposition supporter. Spencer Middlemiss sat back in a chair at his Mascot home last week, and, surrounded by a pile of certificates, photographs and cuttings, proudly confessed that he was one of the original “Zambuks.”

   1957 April 14, David Burke, “He slept in a police cell: Oldest ambulance man looks back”, in The Sun-Herald, 2nd edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: John Fairfax and Sons, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 32, columns 1–2

   The Hospitaller's Clubs, who work for the Hospital of St. John, an op[h]thalmic hospital in Jerusalem, and the St. John Ambulance Brigade, they're the voluntary uniform body, the Zambuks on the football field and the women in white who look after fainting people in big crowds …

   1966 March 17, Marjorie Higgins, quotee, “And how is your first aid? Do you know what to do until the doctor comes?”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, late edition, number 40,013, Sydney, N.S.W.: John Fairfax and Sons, →ISSN, →OCLC, Women’s Section, page 8

   When I came past the accident scene I couldn't believe it—the driver was walking around, though he was breathing a little huskily. As the ambulance by that time had arrived I told one of the zambucks.

   2005, Trevor L. White, chapter 6, in Death at the Post, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, published 2012, →ISBN, page 67

   ‘You’re still bleeding from that wound on the head. Tiger’ll put a dressing on it.’ / ‘Aw, call the Zambuck,’ he protested. / […] / ‘Zambuck’s the first aid man at the footy—you know, St John’s Ambulance. They’re called that ’cause of the ointment they carry.’

   2007, Michael O’Sullivan, “Another Sunday Morning”, in Easter at Tobruk, [Sydney, N.S.W.]: ReadHowYouWant, published 2008, →ISBN, part 2, page 59

   All Black lock Tiny White (born 1925) being taken from the field by zambuks in the fourth New Zealand–South Africa rugby test, Eden Park, Auckland, 1 September 1956.

   2009, Graeme Hunt, “Post-war Challenges”, in First to Care: 125 Years of the Order of St John in New Zealand 1885–2010, Auckland: Libro International; Wellington: Waddington Press for the Priory in New Zealand of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, →ISBN, image caption, page 182

plural zambuks

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of sambuq.

plural Zambuks

1. Alternative letter-case form of zambuk.

   The Hospitaller's Clubs, who work for the Hospital of St. John, an op[h]thalmic hospital in Jerusalem, and the St. John Ambulance Brigade, they're the voluntary uniform body, the Zambuks on the football field and the women in white who look after fainting people in big crowds …

   1966 March 17, Marjorie Higgins, quotee, “And how is your first aid? Do you know what to do until the doctor comes?”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, late edition, number 40,013, Sydney, N.S.W.: John Fairfax and Sons, →ISSN, →OCLC, Women’s Section, page 8

   2 more examples

   “C’mon ‘Zambuk,’ what’s keeping yer!” the old-time football crowds would yell when one over-eager barracker k.o.’d an opposition supporter. Spencer Middlemiss sat back in a chair at his Mascot home last week, and, surrounded by a pile of certificates, photographs and cuttings, proudly confessed that he was one of the original “Zambuks.”

   1957 April 14, David Burke, “He slept in a police cell: Oldest ambulance man looks back”, in The Sun-Herald, 2nd edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: John Fairfax and Sons, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 32, columns 1–2

   ‘You’re still bleeding from that wound on the head. Tiger’ll put a dressing on it.’ / ‘Aw, call the Zambuck,’ he protested. / […] / ‘Zambuck’s the first aid man at the footy—you know, St John’s Ambulance. They’re called that ’cause of the ointment they carry.’

   2007, Michael O’Sullivan, “Another Sunday Morning”, in Easter at Tobruk, [Sydney, N.S.W.]: ReadHowYouWant, published 2008, →ISBN, part 2, page 59