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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
dragoon
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Eighty of 400 dragoons were brought down and the rest fled.
▪ He knew about horses from his years as a dragoon.
▪ The Jacobites, with 800 horse and 6300 infantry, easily outnumbered Argyll's 960 dragoons and 2200 foot soldiers.
▪ When the alarm was raised, three companies of dragoons were sent in pursuit.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dragoon

Dragoon \Dra*goon"\ (dr[.a]*g[=oo]n"), n. [F. dragon dragon, dragoon, fr. L. draco dragon, also, a cohort's standard (with a dragon on it). The name was given from the sense standard. See Dragon.]

  1. ((Mil.) Formerly, a soldier who was taught and armed to serve either on horseback or on foot; now, a mounted soldier; a cavalry man.

  2. A variety of pigeon.
    --Clarke.

    Dragoon bird (Zo["o]l.), the umbrella bird.

Dragoon

Dragoon \Dra*goon"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dragooned; p. pr. & vb. n. Dragooning.]

  1. To harass or reduce to subjection by dragoons; to persecute by abandoning a place to the rage of soldiers.

  2. To compel submission by violent measures; to harass; to persecute.

    The colonies may be influenced to anything, but they can be dragooned to nothing.
    --Price.

    Lewis the Fourteenth is justly censured for trying to dragoon his subjects to heaven.
    --Macaulay.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
dragoon

1620s, from French dragon "carbine, musket," because the guns the soldiers carried "breathed fire" like a dragon (see dragon). Also see -oon.

dragoon

1680s, literally "to force by the agency of dragoons" (which were used by the French kings to persecute Protestants), from dragoon (n.). Related: Dragooned; dragooning.

Wiktionary
dragoon

n. 1 (lb en military) A horse soldier; a cavalryman, who uses a horse for mobility, but fights dismounted. 2 A carrier of a dragon musket. 3 A variety of pigeon. vb. To force someone into doing something; to coerce.

WordNet
dragoon
  1. n. a member of a European military unit formerly composed of heavily armed cavalrymen

  2. v. compel by coercion, threats, or crude means; "They sandbagged him to make dinner for everyone" [syn: sandbag, railroad]

  3. subjugate by imposing troops

Wikipedia
Dragoon

The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional cavalry units. In most armies, "dragoons" came to signify ordinary medium cavalry.

Dragoon regiments were established in most European armies during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The name is derived from a type of firearm (called a dragon) carried by dragoons of the French Army.

The title has been retained in modern times by a number of armoured or ceremonial mounted regiments.

Dragoon (disambiguation)

A dragoon is a soldier who fights on foot but relocates on horseback.

Dragoon may also refer to:

  • Dragoon AFV, an American armoured fighting vehicle
  • Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of Southern France during World War II
  • Dragoon Mountains, a mountain range in Arizona, USA
  • Dragoon, Arizona, an unincorporated community in Cochise County, Arizona
  • Colt Dragoon Revolver, a handgun
  • Dragoon (pigeon), a variety of Domestic Pigeon

In fiction:

  • Dragoon (anime), a 1997 anime film
  • Dragoon, a character class in the Final Fantasy series
  • The Legend of Dragoon, a 1999 role-playing PlayStation videogame
  • Panzer Dragoon, a 1995 rail-shooter Sega Saturn videogame
  • Panzer Dragoon (series), a series of Sega video games
  • Acacia Dragoons, the military force in the video game Chrono Cross
  • Magma Dragoon, a boss character from the game Mega Man X4.
  • Egg Dragoon, a boss in the video games, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations
  • Dragoon, one of the two unlockable vehicles in Kirby Air Ride
  • Dragoon, Tyson Granger's bit-beast in Beyblade.
  • Dragoon, a Protoss infantry unit from the Blizzard computer game Starcraft.
Dragoon (anime)

is a three-episode Japanese original video animation.

Usage examples of "dragoon".

Every cavalry uniform in the Empire was there: Dragoons, Carabiniers, Hussars, Chasseurs, all forming their long lines of attack behind the Lancers and Cuirassiers.

Further back were the Carabiniers in their dazzling white uniforms, and squadrons of green Dragoons and troops of plumed Hussars.

Sharpe looked behind again and saw the closest Dragoons were now just fifty yards away.

The Dragoons closest to the Prussians immediately turned and galloped back up the slope towards their comrades.

The rugged part of the Dragoons called Cochise Stronghold came by the name honestly.

A large number of the countryfolk, however, more curious or less devout than the citizens, gathered round our regiment to see the men who had beaten off the dragoons.

Nearer and nearer in disorderly crowds came the Uhlans and the French dragoons pursuing them.

First there was his encounter with Lord Strongbow and his mutagenically altered Imperial Dragoons, with their scale-ringed, snakish eyes.

At Resaca the American dragoons under Captain May charged straight upon a Mexican battery, killing the gunners and capturing the Mexican general La Vega just as he was about to apply a match to one of the pieces.

French Dragoons, unable to resist using the captured rifles, had proved inept with the unfamiliar weapons.

Two rifles fired, more shot from upstairs, then the northern window was darkened as French Dragoons, who had charged about the blind western angle of the house, filled the frame.

A patch of dust drifted from a field where the shot had plummeted, then he and Ahmed followed the dragoons into the gully and the leaves hid them from the invisible watchers high above.

Drawn by lowing, steaming oxen on log sledges, or huge, creaking wains, bombards captured from the French Crusaders were arriving at the average rate of three per day, each escorted by mounted artillerists and dragoons.

Drawn by lowing, steaming oxen on log sledges, or huge, creaking, wains, bombards captured from the French Crusaders were arriving at the average rate of three per day, each escorted by mounted artillerists and dragoons.

A squadron of the 5th Lancers and of the 5th Dragoon Guards, under Colonel Gore of the latter regiment, had prowled round the base of the hill, and in the fading light they charged through and through the retreating Boers, killing several, and making from twenty to thirty prisoners.