dragoon Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a member of a European military unit formerly composed of heavily armed cavalrymen
  2. verb compel by coercion, threats, or crude means
    railroad; sandbag.
    • They sandbagged him to make dinner for everyone
  3. verb subjugate by imposing troops

WordNet

Dra*goon" noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  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.
Dra*goon" transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dragooned ; present participle & verbal noun Dragooning
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913