dragoon

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (7)  · 
In the corner opposite the dragoon was a boy of eighteen or so in the working clothes of a terrassier or labourer.

View all »
Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A member of a European military unit trained and armed to fight mounted or on foot.
  2. transitive verb To subjugate or persecute by the imposition of troops.
  3. transitive verb To compel by violent measures or threats; coerce.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • One notable grandfather was a descendant of members of the group of the English settlers in North America during the middle of the Seventeenth Century; another was the son of a Scottish professional dragoon, a dragoon who arrived to volunteer his Civil War service with the First Rhode Island cavalry. —  LaRouche's Latest
  • The dragoon, a fat, good-natured man', grinned in reply I won't split on you, you young thieves. —  The Northern Iron
  • Among the most enthusiastic singers Ιlodie recognized the handsome dragoon, the little lawyer's clerk, Henry, her first love After the performance the gallant Desmahis called a cabriolet and escorted the citoyenne Blaise back to the Amour peintre In the carriage the artist took Ιlodie's hand between his You know, Ιlodie, I love you I know it, because you love all women I love them in you She smiled I should be assuming a heavy task, spite of the wigs black, blonde and red, that are the rage, if I undertook to be all women, all sorts of women, for you lodie, I swear What! —  Dieux ont soif. English
  • Our attention would be arrested if one of Jane Austen's young ladies who had just met a dragoon were to walk a little further and meet a dragon. —  A Short History of England
  • A German dragoon, as I thought him, gave me a rude blow with the stock of his piece on the side of my head, and was just going to repeat it, when one of my men shot him dead. —  Memoirs of a Cavalier A Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, and the Wars in England. From the Year 1632 to the Year 1648.
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 69 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same contextWord Family

dragoon:   dragooned
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French dragon, carbine, dragoon, from Old French, dragon; see dragon.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Introduced toward the end of the 17th century (formerly also dragooner = Dutch dragonder = German dragoner = Danish Swedish dragon), from French dragon (= Spanish dragon = Portuguese dragão = Italian dragone, in this sense after F.), a dragoon, so called, it is said, “from dragon, a short species of carbine carried by the original dragoons raised by Marshal Brissac in 1554, on the muzzle of which, from the old fable that the dragon spouts fire, the head of the monster was worked”; but Littré dates the sense ‘dragoon’ from 1585, and the name probably arose from dragon in the sense of ‘standard’ see dragon, 6.
  2. from dragoon, n., after F. dragonner, dragoon, harass, persecute, literally subject to the violence of dragoons, from dragon, dragoon: see dragoon, n., dragonade.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/dræˈgun/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word several times a year.

Recently looked up

Huff's · chasm · heretofore · dorsal · Courtesy

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Glockenspiel · Ersatz · Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid · Haifischschwanzflossenfleischsuppe · Der Kottbusser Postkutscher putzt den Kottbusser Postkutschkasten