| 释义 |
▪ I. dragoon, n.|drəˈguːn|
[ad. mod.F. dragon dragon, also in sense 2.]
†1. A kind of carbine or musket. So called from its ‘breathing fire’ like the fabulous dragon. Obs.
1622F. Markham Bk. War iv. v. 138 A lieutenant of the late invented Dragoones (being not aboue sixteene inch Barrell, and full Musquet bore). Ibid. v. ii. 167 If the Regiment be but Dragoones, then a Spanish Morian, and no other Armor, a light Guelding, a good sword, and a faire Dragoone. 1637Lanc. Wills (1857) II. 142 To my Lord Strange one case of pistolls and a dragoone. 1659Rushw. Hist. Coll. ii. II. App. 137 The arms of a harquebusier, or dragoon..are a good harquebuss or dragoon, fitted with an iron work, to be carried in a belt [etc.].
†b. See quot., and cf. fire-drake 3.
1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Sea-men 32 Pots of wild fire or dragouns.
2. A species of cavalry soldier. The name was originally applied to mounted infantry armed with the firearm (sense 1). These gradually developed into horse soldiers, and the term is now merely a name for certain regiments of cavalry which historically represent the ancient dragoons, and retain some distinctive features of dress, etc.
In France, the edict of Louis XIV, 25 July 1665, ranked dragoons among infantry, and this was their status until 1784. In Montecuculi's time, a 1688, they still ordinarily fought on foot, though sometimes firing from horseback; when Simes wrote, 1768, they mostly fought on horseback, though still occasionally on foot. The French règlement of 1 Jan. 1791, confirmed by the décret of 21 Feb. 1793, classed them among horse soldiers, after the cavalry proper. In the British Army, the Cavalry are now (1896) divided into Life Guards, Horse Guards, Dragoon Guards, Dragoons, Hussars, and Lancers. Earlier classifications made the Hussars and Lancers subdivisions of the Dragoons. (See quot. 1836.) In the U.S. army the term is not used.
1622F. Markham Bk. War iii. i. 83 To these Low Countries haue produced another sort of Horse-men..and they call them Dragoons which I know not whether I may returne them Foot-Horsemen, or Horse-Footmen. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 283 The General following with the rest of his Horse and Dragoons. 1683Evelyn Diary 5 Dec., The King had now augmented his guards with a new sort of dragoons, who carried also grenados. a1694Tillotson Serm. (1743) V. 1274 Armed soldiers, called by that name of dragons, or, as we according to the French pronunciation call them, dragoons. 1724De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 286 They..lost most of their horses..and..turning dragoons, they lined the hedges. 1768T. Simes Mil. Medley, Dragoon, is a musqueteer, mounted on horseback, sometimes fighting on foot, but mostly on horseback, as occasion requires. 1836Penny Cycl. VI. 388 In the British Army [Cavalry] consists of the two regiments of Life Guards, the royal regiment of Horse Guards, seven regiments of Dragoon Guards, and seventeen regiments of Light Dragoons, of which the 7th, 8th, 10th, and 15th are Hussars, and the 9th, 12th, 16th, and 17th are called Lancers. [There are now (1896) 3 Regiments called Dragoons, 13 of Hussars, and 5 of Lancers.] 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iii. 294 The dragoon..has since become a mere horse soldier. But in the seventeenth century he was accurately described by Montecuculi as a foot soldier, who used a horse only in order to arrive with more speed at the place where military service was to be performed. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. II. x. 469 Riding to the field, but fighting on foot, they were dragoons in the earlier sense of the word.
b. As the type of a rough and fierce fellow.
1712Steele Spect. No. 533 ⁋2 What Treatment you would think then due to such Dragoons. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Race Wks. (Bohn) II. 27 These founders of the House of Lords were greedy and ferocious dragoons, sons of greedy and ferocious pirates.
†c. In the following, taken by Todd, etc., as = dragonnade.
a1691Bp. T. Barlow Rem. 265 (T.) To bring men to the Catholick faith (as they pretend) by dragoons, and imprisonments.
3. A variety of pigeon, being a cross between a horseman and a tumbler.
1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Pigeons, From the Tumbler and the Horseman, Dragoons. 1765Treat. Dom. Pigeons 60 When the powter has laid her egg, it must be shifted under a dragoon. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) II. 64 His pigeon-cote..is no longer stocked with carriers, dragoons, horsemen [etc.].
4. attrib. and Comb.
1688Evelyn Diary 23 Mar., The dragoon missioners, Popish officers and priests, fell upon them [French Protestants], murdered and put them to death. 1688Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 487 The duke of Grafton..was shott at by a dragoon soldier. 1692Ibid. II. 402 Rigorous proceedings against the dragoon-converts. 1745Gentl. Mag. XVII. 416 A regiment of dragoon guards of 10 companies. 1828J. M. Spearman Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 257 A Light Dragoon horse, mounted and accoutred complete, carries 2 cwt. 1 qr. 14 lbs. 1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ii. xi. (1865) I. 118 [A] rugged dragoon-major of a woman.
▪ II. draˈgoon, v.
[f. prec. n.; or ad. F. dragonner (17th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. trans. To set dragoons upon, to force or drive by the agency of dragoons; to persecute or oppress, as in the dragonnades.
1689in Somers Tracts (1795) II. 351 The Art of Dragooning Men into Religion..the Contrivance of Lewis XIV. 1692Pretences Fr. Invas. 12 To Dragoon all Men into the Kings Religion. 1738Neal Hist. Purit. IV. 566 His brother of France..was dragooning his Protestant subjects out of his kingdom. 1881Pall Mall G. 3 Dec. 1/1 The necessity for dragooning the Irish or for abolishing trial by jury.
2. To force (into a course, etc.) by rigorous and harassing measures.
1689Prior Ep. F. Shephard 136 Deny to have your free⁓born Toe Dragoon'd into a Wooden Shoe. 1794Godwin Cal. Williams 112 He dragooned men into wisdom. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xvi. (1889) 152 He wasn't to be dragooned into doing or not doing anything.
3. To exact free quarters from.
1753Edwards in Mrs. Barbauld Richardson's Corr. (1804) III. 52 Nor ought I..to be..a vagrant without any fixed habitation or to dragoon my friends throughout the year.
Hence draˈgooned ppl. a., draˈgooning vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also (nonce-wds.) draˈgoonable a., capable of being dragooned; draˈgoonage, the action of dragooning.
1691New Discov. Old Intreague iii. 45 Domestick Heroes, whose Dragooning Hands Seek out no Forreign Wars, while they can plunder Friends. Ibid. vii. 3 Dragooning's ceas'd. 1717De Foe Mem. Ch. Scot. iii. 78 All the French Dragooning, the Popish Burnings, the Heathen Torturings that we read of. a1745Swift Wks. (1841) II. 67 The next evil to that of being dragooned is that of living dragoonable. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 426 That inextinguishable hatred which glowed in the bosom of the persecuted, dragooned, expatriated Calvinist of Languedoc. 1892Athenæum 24 Dec. 883/3 Isaac Minet was..a witness of the ‘dragooning’ persecution. 1894Speaker 26 May 584/1 Ecclesiastic and squirearchic almsgiving and dragoonage. |