dragoon

[ druh-goon ]

noun

1. (especially formerly) a European cavalryman of a heavily armed troop.
2. a member of a military unit formerly composed of such cavalrymen, as in the British army.
3. (formerly) a mounted infantryman armed with a short musket.

verb (used with object)

1. to set dragoons or soldiers upon; persecute by armed force; oppress.
2. to force by oppressive measures; coerce:

   The authorities dragooned the peasants into leaving their farms.

dragoon

/ drəˈɡuːn /

noun

1. (originally) a mounted infantryman armed with a carbine
2. sometimes capital a domestic fancy pigeon
3. 1. a type of cavalryman
   2. ( pl; cap when part of a name )

      the Royal Dragoons

verb

1. to coerce; force

   he was dragooned into admitting it

2. to persecute by military force

Derived Forms

• draˈgoonage, noun

Other Words From

• dra·goonage noun
• undra·gooned adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of dragoon¹

1615–25; < French dragon, special use of dragon dragon, applied first to a pistol hammer (so named because of its shape), then to the firearm, then to the troops so armed

Word History and Origins

Origin of dragoon¹

C17: from French dragon (special use of dragon ), soldier armed with a carbine, perhaps suggesting that a carbine, like a dragon, breathed forth fire

Example Sentences

Nor was I amused by the dragooning of theatergoers brought onstage to witness atrocities or, at another point, to be turned, without warning, into slaves at an auction.

From New York Times

The premise has the boys, the worst soldiers imaginable, coping with being dragooned into the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times

An unassuming, enlightened type, he has been dragooned into choosing a bride only because his brawnier and better-loved brother, Prince Charming, is presumed dead after disappearing at war.

From New York Times

The grotesqueness of the sacrifice seems compounded for the Africans dragooned into fighting somebody else’s war.

From New York Times

As was also the case with Tom Stoppard’s Broadway hit “Leopoldstadt,” I sometimes felt in “Otto Frank” that the names of the camps and the litanies of loss were being dragooned into dramatic service illegitimately.

From New York Times

Related Words

• cause
• charge
• compel
• demand
• drag
• drive
• impose
• inflict
• limit
• make
• move
• oblige
• order
• press
• pressure
• require
• restrict
• urge