maroons

maroons — noun

1. a deep brownish-red colour, like chestnuts or dried blood

1.nounB2
Definition

a deep brownish-red colour, like chestnuts or dried blood

Example

Fatima wore a maroon dress to her cousin's wedding in Rabat.

The school's maroon and gold flag hung above the main entrance.

collocation: maroon and gold

Common collocations
  • deep maroon
  • dark maroon
  • rich maroon
  • bright maroon
  • maroon dress
  • maroon leather
Synonyms
  • burgundy

    darker and more purple than maroon

  • crimson

    much brighter and more vivid; a true red rather than brownish

  • chestnut

    browner and less red than maroon

Common Mistakes

She painted the room maroon color.
She painted the room maroon.
'maroon' is already a colour name; adding 'color' is redundant.

2. someone left alone in a remote place, especially an island, with no way to escap

2.nounC1
Definition

someone left alone in a remote place, especially an island, with no way to escape

Example

The old sailor told stories of maroons who survived for years on tiny atolls.

plural: maroons who survived

Ingrid read a novel about a maroon rescued after ten years alone on an island.

Synonyms
  • castaway

    more literary and specifically implies survival after a shipwreck

  • outcast

    refers to social rejection, not physical isolation in a remote place

Usage Note

This noun sense is directly derived from the verb 'maroon' (to strand). It is far less common than the verb form.

3. an enslaved African person in the Americas who ran away and helped build a hidde

3.nounC2
Definition

an enslaved African person in the Americas who ran away and helped build a hidden free settlement, or a person descended from such a community

Example

Mei-Lin studied the maroon communities of Suriname for her history project.

collocation: maroon communities

Descendants of Jamaican maroons still celebrate their ancestors' freedom each year.

Common collocations
  • maroon communities
  • maroon settlements
  • Jamaican maroons
  • Surinamese maroons

Usage Note

A specific historical term for communities in the Caribbean, the Guianas, Brazil, Colombia, and parts of North America. Often capitalised ('Maroons') when referring to named groups.

maroons — verb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Maroon, strand, isolate, abandon, and trap all describe leaving someone alone and cut off, but they differ in important ways. Maroon is the strongest of these — it means being left with no practical way to escape or get help, whether on an island (literal) or in a difficult life situation (figurative). Strand is milder and often accidental: you can be stranded when your car breaks down, but 'marooned' would feel too dramatic for a temporary delay. Isolate focuses on the separation itself without the helplessness that maroon implies — a scientist might isolate a sample in a lab, but you would never say they marooned it. Abandon emphasises the act of leaving and the emotional weight of being deserted, while maroon emphasises the trapped, helpless state that results. Trap works best for physical confinement (trapped in a lift) where maroon would not fit, since maroon typically describes open but inescapable situations: 'The floods marooned the family on the roof' versus 'The door jammed and trapped her inside the room.'

strand ↗isolate ↗abandon ↗trap ↗

Common collocations

Adverbs

Prepositions

Etymology

SpanishFrenchEnglish

Maroon entered English from French 'marron,' which originally meant a fugitive enslaved person living in the wild. The French word traces back to Spanish 'cimarrón' (meaning 'wild' or 'runaway'), first used for escaped livestock before being applied to escaped enslaved people. The colour sense comes separately from French 'marron' meaning 'chestnut' — the nut's rich reddish-brown shade gave the colour its name. The verb sense (to strand someone) developed from the practice of abandoning people on deserted islands, a punishment famously used by pirates and later extended to any situation of helpless isolation.

First known use

1779

1779, in the meaning defined above Verb