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maroon

 - 6 dictionary results

ma⋅roon

1  [muh-roon]
Use maroon in a Sentence
–adjective
1. dark brownish-red.
2. Chiefly British.
a. a loudly exploding firework consisting of a cardboard container filled with gunpowder.
b. a similar firework used as a danger or warning signal, as by railway brakemen.
Origin:
1585–95; < F marron lit., chestnut, MF < Upper It (Tuscan marrone), perh. ult. deriv. of pre-L *marr- stone

ma⋅roon

2  [muh-roon]
–verb (used with object)
1. to put ashore and abandon on a desolate island or coast by way of punishment or the like, as was done by buccaneers.
2. to place in an isolated and often dangerous position: The rising floodwaters marooned us on top of the house.
3. to abandon and leave without aid or resources: Having lost all his money, he was marooned in the strange city.
–noun
4. (often initial capital letter) any of a group of blacks, descended from fugitive slaves of the 17th and 18th centuries, living in the West Indies and Guiana, esp. in mountainous areas.
5. a person who is marooned: Robinson Crusoe lived for years as a maroon.
Origin:
1660–70; < F mar(r)on, appar. < AmerSp cimarrón wild (see cimarron ); first used in reference to domestic animals that escaped into the woods, later to fugitive slaves
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To maroon
ma·roon 1   (mə-rōōn')   
tr.v.   ma·rooned, ma·roon·ing, ma·roons

  1. To put ashore on a deserted island or coast and intentionally abandon.

  2. To abandon or isolate with little hope of ready rescue or escape: The travelers were marooned by the blizzard.

n.  

  1. often Maroon

    1. A fugitive Black slave in the West Indies in the 17th and 18th centuries.

    2. A descendant of such a slave.

  2. A person who is marooned, as on an island.


[From French marron, fugitive slave, from American Spanish cimarrón, wild, runaway, perhaps from cima, summit (from runaways' fleeing to the mountains), from Latin cȳma, sprout; see cyma.]
ma·roon 2   (mə-rōōn')   
n.  A dark reddish brown to dark purplish red.

[French marron, chestnut, from Italian marrone.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

maroon  (n.)
1594, "large sweet chestnut of southern Europe," from Fr. marron "chestnut," from dialect of Lyons, ult. from a word in a pre-Roman language, perhaps Ligurian; or from Gk. maraon "sweet chestnut." Sense of "very dark reddish-brown color" is first recorded 1791, from Fr. couleur marron.

maroon  (v.)
"put ashore on a desolate island or coast," 1724 (implied in marooning), from maron (n.) "fugitive black slave in the jungles of W.Indies and Dutch Guyana" (1626), from Fr. marron, said to be a corruption of Sp. cimmaron "wild, untamed," from O.Sp. cimarra "thicket," probably from cima "summit, top" (from L. cyma "sprout"), with a notion of living wild in the mountains.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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