maroon
1 Americanadjective
-
dark brownish-red.
-
Chiefly British.
-
a loudly exploding firework consisting of a cardboard container filled with gunpowder.
-
a similar firework used as a danger or warning signal, as by railway brakemen.
-
verb (used with object)
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maroons,
present (3rd person singular)
-
marooned,
past participle, past
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marooning
present participle
-
to put ashore and abandon on a desolate island or coast by way of punishment or the like, as was done by buccaneers.
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to place in an isolated and often dangerous position.
The rising floodwaters marooned us on top of the house.
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to abandon and leave without aid or resources.
Having lost all his money, he was marooned in the strange city.
noun
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maroons
plural
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(often initial capital letter) any of a group of Black people, descended from fugitive slaves of the 17th and 18th centuries, living in the West Indies and Guiana, especially in mountainous areas.
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a person who is marooned.
Robinson Crusoe lived for years as a maroon.
verb
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to leave ashore and abandon, esp on an island
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to isolate without resources
noun
-
a descendant of a group of runaway slaves living in the remoter areas of the Caribbean or Guyana
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informal a person who has been marooned, esp on an island
noun
-
-
a dark red to purplish-red colour
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( as adjective )
a maroon carpet
-
-
an exploding firework, esp one used as a warning signal
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
maroonsimple
-
maroonssimple
-
have maroonedperfect
-
has maroonedperfect
-
am marooningprogressive
-
are marooningprogressive
-
is marooningprogressive
-
have been marooningperfect progressive
-
has been marooningperfect progressive
Past
-
maroonedsimple
-
had maroonedperfect
-
was marooningprogressive
-
were marooningprogressive
-
had been marooningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of maroon1
First recorded in 1585–95; from French marron literally, “chestnut (nut and color), firecracker,” Middle French, from Italian marrone “chestnut, brown”; further origin unknown
Origin of maroon2
First recorded in 1660–70; from French mar(r)on, apparently from Colonial Spanish cimarrón “wild”; first used in reference to domestic animals that escaped into the woods, later to people who escaped slavery; see cimarron
Explanation
To maroon is to strand someone in an isolated place, often a deserted island. Think of "Gilligan's Island," "Survivor," or "Lost" — TV shows that feature folks marooned on islands — and you've got the idea. Maroon can be a noun or verb, depending on how you use it. If you maroon your best friend on a deserted island, in addition to being a terrible friend, you're using the word as a verb. If this friend was wearing a brownish-red shirt at the time he was marooned, you would use the adjective maroon to describe the shirt's color.
Vocabulary lists containing maroon
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The House on Mango Street
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Red
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But Jane, who enters her office to an oil painting of her father, smiling kindly in a maroon armchair, is confident that Sol would have wanted his holdings intact for generations to come.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
Osmand broke away to score seconds before the end, two team-mates running in his slipstream with every man in maroon up the other end.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
Sunday was about the blue and the green but ended up being more about those in maroon and claret and amber.
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026
In his maroon robes, simple sandals and wide-rimmed spectacles, the Dalai Lama is an unlikely global celebrity.
From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026
Tonight, Bennie had on creased gray slacks and a button-down maroon top that matched, her tortoiseshell glasses.
From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older
After an expedition to a hostile planet, he unintentionally maroons his fellow explorers, so they have no choice but to set up a colony there.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 14, 2022
That maroons 100 chatty senators - including four Democrats in the heat of a nomination fight - for the serious constitutional business of the impeachment trial, for hours at a time.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 21, 2020
Set in Wyoming shortly after the Civil War, the film maroons the titular group of unsavory types at a stagecoach stopover during a blizzard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2015
It's a record that does clever things with its anachronisms: retro-robotic voices collide satisfyingly with free-jazz skronks on Rocket #9, while highlight Forêt Vierge maroons its wobbly analogue synths amid icy, minimalist techno.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 25, 2012
She and William saw them at dusk, when “the sky was so very lovely, too, maroons, lavenders, blues.”
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
The Joyjatra, chartered by a Singapore-based company, was marooned for nearly four months.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
In short: Wilson snuck a 2,700-year-old poem through the gates of mainstream taste — and after that victory, her arrogance left her marooned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
His universally acclaimed “Summer of Soul” dropped in June 2021, offering deep refreshment to thirsty concertgoers marooned in a barren season for live music.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
This explains the sense Ms. Edebiri exudes of being suddenly marooned and adrift, and in retreat in some way from adulthood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Now that she was marooned in Boulder City, her few social companions consisted of the ill-educated and hardscrabble wives of sawyers and miners.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Fifteenth-century sailors shared stories of ships that had become ensnared in the algae, marooning their crews at sea.
From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2023
This time a van's clutch has stopped working, marooning them in the central reservation of the busy motorway.
From BBC ● May 1, 2023
The lack of open nursing home beds is marooning some patients in hospitals for weeks while social workers seek placements.
From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2023
Debris flows and swollen creeks blocked roads and highways, marooning hundreds of people for hours and, in some cases, days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 14, 2023
Leirya is practically the only pirate at present in these seas, and we are all aware that marooning is practised chiefly among pirates.
From Across the Spanish Main A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess by W. (William) Rainey
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