dragoon

1 of 2

noun

dra·goon drə-ˈgün

dra-

Synonyms of dragoon next

: a member of a European military unit formerly composed of heavily armed mounted troops

: cavalryman

dragoon

2 of 2

verb

dragooned; dragooning; dragoons

transitive verb

: to subjugate or persecute by harsh use of troops

: to force into submission or compliance especially by violent measures

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A dragoon was a mounted European infantryman of the 17th and 18th centuries armed with a firearm called by the same name. We suspect no arm-twisting is necessary to convince you that the firearm's name, which came to English from French, comes from the fired weapon's resemblance to a fire-breathing dragon. History has recorded the dragonish nature of the dragoons who persecuted the French Protestants in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV. The persecution by means of dragoons eventually led to the use of the word dragoon as a verb.

Examples of dragoon in a Sentence

Verb she was dragooned into agreeing to the fraudulent scheme

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Noun

The family, Louisville residents, also enjoyed some pizza and crab dragoons from the food trucks. —

Marina Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 8 Apr. 2024 What happens with Hermann and the dragoon? —

Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2022

Verb

Airlines that have pulled 737 Max 9s from service have canceled some flights, and dragooned over planes into service to replace the missing 737 Maxes. —

Chris Stokel-Walker, WIRED, 11 Jan. 2024 When pro landscapers dragoon your neighbor’s turf, mowing is just part of the plan. —

Sal Vaglica, WSJ, 22 Sep. 2023 See all Example Sentences for dragoon

Word History

Etymology

Noun

borrowed from French dragon "dragon, military standard, kind of cavalry soldier," going back to Old French, "dragon, military standard" — more at dragon

Note: The French word in reference to a cavalry soldier is apparently first attested in La Satyre Ménippée de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne, a political satire attacking the Catholic League and the pretensions of the Spanish monarchy, written by an authorial collective and first printed in 1594. The Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, acknowledges that the word is borrowed from French, but then seems to contradict itself by treating the sense "cavalry soldier" as derivative of a contemporaneous sense "short-barreled firearm." There appears to be no evidence of the latter use for French dragon. Note that the ending -oon [u:n] is a frequent outcome in English of French -on [ɔ͂], as well as Spanish -ón and Italian -one, in words borrowed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Early evidence for dragoon in English is in Francis Markham's Five Decades of Epistles of Warre (London, 1622). Markham uses both the firearm and cavalryman senses without explicitly linking them and at times simultaneously, as in "… a Lieutenant of a Troupe of compleat armed French Pistoliers, is reputed better in degree then a Captaine of an hundred Foot, a Lieutenant of the late inuented Dragoones (being not aboue sixteene inche Barrell, and full Musquet bore) the Foot-Captaines equall …" (pp. 137-38). (He uses carbine in the same manner, for both the weapon and the soldier carrying it.) This might suggest that the weapon was named after the soldier, despite the Oxford dictionary's note that the firearm was "so called from its 'breathing fire' like the fabulous dragon."

Verb

derivative of dragoon entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

1604, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1689, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of dragoon was in 1604

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Cite this Entry

Style

“Dragoon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dragoon. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.

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Kids Definition

dragoon

1 of 2 noun

dra·goon drə-ˈgün

dra-

: a mounted infantry soldier

dragoon

2 of 2 verb

: to get (someone) to do something by force

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dragoon

noun

Illustration of dragoon

verb

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Synonyms

Examples of dragoon in a Sentence

Word History

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