dragoon
Americannoun
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(especially formerly) a European cavalryman of a heavily armed troop.
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a member of a military unit formerly composed of such cavalrymen, as in the British army.
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(formerly) a mounted infantryman armed with a short musket.
verb (used with object)
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to set dragoons or soldiers upon; persecute by armed force; oppress.
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to force by oppressive measures; coerce.
The authorities dragooned the peasants into leaving their farms.
noun
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(originally) a mounted infantryman armed with a carbine
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(sometimes capital) a domestic fancy pigeon
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a type of cavalryman
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( pl; cap when part of a name )
the Royal Dragoons
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verb
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to coerce; force
he was dragooned into admitting it
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to persecute by military force
Other Word Forms
- dragoonage noun
- undragooned adjective
Etymology
Origin of dragoon
1615–25; < French dragon, special use of dragon dragon, applied first to a pistol hammer (so named because of its shape), then to the firearm, then to the troops so armed
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that often they—or the graduate students they dragoon into doing the work for them—don’t always do the best job of review.
From Slate • Jan. 31, 2023
Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz show up as spies who dragoon Cage into a covert operation that allows the filmmakers to shift to more commercial terrain and bring out the heavy artillery.
From New York Times • Apr. 21, 2022
He rejected accounts of forced labor as "pure fiction," saying the Japanese army "did not dragoon Korean women to work in its brothels."
From Fox News • Mar. 8, 2021
Complications ensue when Harry’s old flame and her spy brother dragoon him into thwarting Nazi plans to poison enemy cities with uranium.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 19, 2018
A similar oval plate bearing the design of the 1812 dragoon cap plate, and of similar construction, is known.
From American Military Insignia 1800-1851 by Campbell, J. Duncan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
