- maroon
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maroon1
/meuh roohn"/, adj.1. dark brownish-red.2. Chiefly Brit.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.[1585-95; < F marron lit., chestnut, MF < Upper It (Tuscan marrone), perh. ult. deriv. of pre-L *marr- stone]maroon2/meuh roohn"/, v.t.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.n.4. (often cap) 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.[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]
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Universalium. 2010.
