cordon

[kawr-dn]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cordon ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a line of police, sentinels, military posts, warships, etc., enclosing or guarding an area.

a cord or braid worn for ornament or as a fastening.

a ribbon worn usually diagonally across the breast as a badge of a knightly or honorary order.

Fortification.

a projecting course of stones at the base of a parapet.
the coping of a scarp.

Architecture.

a stringcourse, especially one having little or no projection.
a cut-stone riser on a stepped ramp or the like.

a fruit tree or shrub trained to grow along a support or a series of such supports.

verb (used with object)

to surround or blockade with or as with a cordon (usually followed by off): The police cordoned off the street.

Origin of cordon

1400–50; Middle English < Middle French, diminutive of corde

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for cordoned

sequester, segregate, confine, separate, seclude, insulate, remove, restrict, detach, cordon

Examples from the Web for cordoned

Contemporary Examples of cordoned

He complained that not only has their house been cordoned off and “fumigated” but most of the neighbors have fled in fear.
Ebola in Europe: What Went Wrong
Barbie Latza Nadeau
October 8, 2014
Planes, boats, cars, strangers—all were banned from entering the cordoned off area.
1976 Vs. Today: Ebola’s Terrifying Evolution
Abby Haglage
September 10, 2014
A big section of Watertown was cordoned off and police began a methodical, door-to-door, nerve-straining search.
Boston Suspects Tamerlan & Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, From Boxing to Bombs
Michael Daly
April 20, 2013
Indeed, Romney has cordoned off major sections of his life, leaving him little to share beyond policy talking points.
Mitt Romney’s Swiss-Cheese Campaign Places Most of His Life Off Limits
Howard Kurtz
May 22, 2012
Police have cordoned off the street and muscled bodyguards keep the crowds at bay and out of the camera sights.
Jersey Shore Takes Italy
Barbie Latza Nadeau
May 24, 2011

Historical Examples of cordoned

In the blinding height of a Panhandle summer it is no good thing to be cordoned about with dead ponies and dead Indians.
The Sunset Trail
Alfred Henry Lewis
Holding a baby in her arms, she burst out of the ring of men who had cordoned off the beheading.
The Saracen: The Holy War
Robert Shea
The place could have been cordoned off, with the police, the army and the navy all cooperating to nab me.
The Old Die Rich
Horace Leonard Gold

British Dictionary definitions for cordoned

cordon

noun

a chain of police, soldiers, ships, etc, stationed around an area

a ribbon worn as insignia of honour or rank

a cord or ribbon worn as an ornament or fastening

Also called: string course, belt course, table architect an ornamental projecting band or continuous moulding along a wall

horticulture a form of fruit tree consisting of a single stem bearing fruiting spurs, produced by cutting back all lateral branches

verb

(tr often foll by off) to put or form a cordon (around); close (off)

Word Origin for cordon

C16: from Old French, literally: a little cord, from corde string, cord

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cordoned

cordon

mid-15c., "cord or ribbon worn as an ornament," from Middle French cordon "ribbon," diminutive of Old French corde "cord" (see cord). Sense of "a line of people or things guarding something" is 1758. Original sense preserved in cordon bleu (1727) "the highest distinction," literally "blue ribbon," for the sky-blue ribbon worn by the Knights-grand-cross of the Holy Ghost (highest order of chivalry); extended figuratively to other persons of distinction, especially, jocularly, to a first-rate cook. Cordon sanitaire (1857), from French, a guarded line between infected and uninfected districts.

cordon

1560s, "to ornament with a ribbon;" 1891 as "to guard with a cordon;" from cordon (n.). Related: Cordoned; cordoning.