marooned

American  

[muh-roond] / məˈrund /

adjective

1. abandoned on a desolate island or coast by way of punishment or the like, as was done by buccaneers.

   In exchange for food supplies left for them on the island, the marooned mutineers handed over the ship's instruments and charts.

2. placed or left in an isolated and often dangerous position.

   Getting flood relief to the marooned villages has proved difficult.

3. abandoned or stuck somewhere without resources.

   When flights were grounded after 9/11, Canadians offered their hospitality and their homes to put up marooned Americans.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of maroon.

Etymology

Origin of marooned

maroon ² + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

Someone who's marooned is stranded. When a sailor's boat is washed up on the shore of a deserted island after a big storm, both the sailor and the boat are marooned. If a teenager is abandoned at the mall by her friends, you could describe her as marooned. A marooned cruise ship that's stuck on a rocky beach is probably full of marooned passengers.

Example Sentences

Marooned passengers told the BBC people had been vomiting and passing out in the heat and now did not know how they would get home.

From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026

Marooned in an unfamiliar city, with no social ties, Folan taught yoga at a local YMCA.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026

Marooned, Edgar finds company in his old homie Jackson, but little comfort: “Where would I even go?”

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2021

Marooned though we were, the party continued through the profligate winter into spring, when the melting snow turned the earth around us muddy and there came a reckoning of sorts.

From Salon • Jun. 2, 2018

We have not all dreamed of Treasure-Islands and Marooned sailors.

From Visions and Revisions A Book of Literary Devotions by Powys, John Cowper

Related Words

• ashore
• stranded
• wrecked