Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A member of a European military unit trained and armed to fight mounted or on foot.
- transitive verb To subjugate or persecute by the imposition of troops.
- transitive verb To compel by violent measures or threats; coerce.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A cavalry soldier.
- noun A dragonade.
- noun Same as
dragon , 2 . - To set dragoons or soldiers upon, as in the dragonades (see
dragonade ); persecute or oppress by armed force. - To cause to submit, as by persistent threats; compel by repeated acts of any kind; harass.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun ((Mil.) Formerly, a soldier who was taught and armed to serve either on horseback or on foot; now, a mounted soldier; a cavalry man.
- noun A variety of pigeon.
- noun (Zoöl.) the umbrella bird.
- transitive verb To harass or reduce to subjection by dragoons; to persecute by abandoning a place to the rage of soldiers.
- transitive verb To compel submission by violent measures; to harass; to persecute.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun military A
horse soldier ; acavalryman , who uses a horse for mobility, but fights dismounted. - noun A carrier of a dragon musket.
- verb To
force someone into doing something; tocoerce .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb compel by coercion, threats, or crude means
- noun a member of a European military unit formerly composed of heavily armed cavalrymen
- verb subjugate by imposing troops
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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A dragoon is a mounted soldier who attacks mounted, and fights dismounted in the defense.
Lock n' Loaded: Cracking Down on Bike Theft BikeSnobNYC 2008
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In the corner opposite the dragoon was a boy of eighteen or so in the working clothes of a terrassier or labourer.
The Soul of the War Philip Gibbs 1919
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The dragoon was the first to resume the conversation.
The Tiger Hunter Mayne Reid 1850
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He called a dragoon, who was riding in advance, issued a few orders and cautions relative to the comfort and safety of Singleton, and speaking a consoling word to his friend himself, gave Roanoke the spur, and dashed by the car, at a rate that again put to flight all the philosophy of
The Spy James Fenimore Cooper 1820
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The Obama White House first became known for reckless political tactics when the National Endowment for the Arts used several conference calls dragoon artists into promoting specific administration policies.
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As the afternoon stretched out into evening, they would mull over words such as dragoon, cabal, strauss and enterprise.
Archive 2006-10-29 Miss Snark 2006
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Her podcast mentioning "dragoon" had to come from here
Red Letter Challenge -update Miss Snark 2006
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Her podcast mentioning "dragoon" had to come from here
Archive 2006-10-29 Miss Snark 2006
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The word "dragoon" was a thorn in my tenderest part that rankled and lacerated at every stir.
Charles O'Malley — Volume 1 Charles James Lever 1839
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I believe Ms. Bauer is aiming in the general direction of "dragoon" as verb transitive, in particular the second definition of such as offered by the 1913 Webster: " 2.
Red Letter Challenge -update Miss Snark 2006
super-logos commented on the word dragoon
What about the Light Dragoons in the War of the Revolution in American history? Is a dragoon a group of troops? One could see coercion in that, or force, for sure.
August 21, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word dragoon
A dragoon is a single soldier, not a unit.
August 21, 2008
milosrdenstvi commented on the word dragoon
Dragoons were generally light cavalry, used as a sort of police or guerrilla force on occasion, which is where the verb form comes in. So it was kind of silly for Gilbert to talk about "Heavy Dragoons", it being an oxymoron. (See residuum for citation.)
The name came from the carbine they originally used, called a dragon.
August 21, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word dragoon
Not quite an oxymoron. See heavy dragoon and light dragoon for period definitions.
October 9, 2008
jortop commented on the word dragoon
I believe the example sentences for this word refer to a similarly spelled word unrelated to this word. See Peggy Noonan's 6/1/09 column (url below) for the correct usage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354585930464037.html
"Mr. Clinton's staff was human, colorful, messy, slightly mad. They had pent-up energy after 12 years of Republican rule, and they believed their own propaganda that Republicans were wicked. They were oafish: One dragooned a government helicopter to go play golf. President Obama's staff is far less entertaining."
June 1, 2009
jortop commented on the word dragoon
I believe the example sentences for this word refer to a similarly spelled word unrelated to this word. See Peggy Noonan's 6/1/09 column (url below) for the correct usage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354585930464037.html
"Mr. Clinton's staff was human, colorful, messy, slightly mad. They had pent-up energy after 12 years of Republican rule, and they believed their own propaganda that Republicans were wicked. They were oafish: One dragooned a government helicopter to go play golf. President Obama's staff is far less entertaining."
June 1, 2009
jortop commented on the word dragoon
I believe the example sentences for this word refer to a similarly spelled word unrelated to this word. See Peggy Noonan's 6/1/09 column (url below) for the correct usage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354585930464037.html
"Mr. Clinton's staff was human, colorful, messy, slightly mad. They had pent-up energy after 12 years of Republican rule, and they believed their own propaganda that Republicans were wicked. They were oafish: One dragooned a government helicopter to go play golf. President Obama's staff is far less entertaining."
June 1, 2009
kalayzich commented on the word dragoon
a dragoon is also a breed of pigeon
August 30, 2016