cordon

1 of 2

noun

cor·​don ˈkȯr-dᵊn How to pronounce cordon (audio)
-ˌdän
1
a
: an ornamental cord or ribbon
untied the cordon that fastened his cloak
2
a
: a line of troops or of military posts enclosing an area to prevent passage
b
: a line of persons or objects around a person or place
a cordon of police
3
: an espalier especially of a fruit tree trained as a single horizontal shoot or two diverging horizontal shoots in a single line

cordon

2 of 2

verb

cordoned; cordoning; cordons

transitive verb

: to form a protective or restrictive cordon (see cordon entry 1 sense 2) around
usually used with off
Police cordoned off the area around the crime scene.

Examples of cordon in a Sentence

Noun A cordon of police kept protesters away from the building.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
The stakes cordon areas off, declaring our territory and its limits. Hazlitt, 20 Sep. 2023 Archambault witnessed a makeshift refugee camp filled with Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of their country next to her hotel in Warsaw, and had to navigate a security cordon as U.S. President Joe Biden stayed in that same hotel in March 2022 to mark the one-year anniversary of the war. Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Sep. 2023 For now, many residents have resorted to drinking bottled water that is available in pallets at the aid stations in Lahaina and elsewhere along the coast within the security cordon. Joshua Partlow, Scott Wilson and Dino Grandoni, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Aug. 2023 The area was under gang control, and, from the look of the watchful young men who formed a perimeter around Martelly’s security cordon, some arrangement had evidently been struck. Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023 One key strategy that is very useful to understand is growing fruits as cordons in small spaces. Elizabeth Waddington, Treehugger, 25 July 2023 Two vertical cordons can also be placed to grow over an archway support form to create arches or tunnels. Elizabeth Waddington, Treehugger, 25 July 2023 Later, a crowd of protesters outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, tried to cross a police cordon near the building before being repelled by security, officials said. Patrick Smith, NBC News, 24 July 2023 Local residents had gathered on the beach just beyond a cordon of caution tape to catch a sight of the mountain cat. Alexandra E. Petri, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2023
Verb
Some energy-company insiders have discussed ringfencing assets marked for divestiture in new legal entities that would essentially cordon them off, rather than risk their falling back into Russian hands, said one executive briefed on the discussions. Christopher M. Matthews and Jenny Strasburg, WSJ, 1 Mar. 2022 No one will be allowed to enter the area except for people who live there, essential workers like employees of elder care homes, and 1,700 government officers, including 500 policemen, who are being deployed to the area to cordon it off and assist health workers with door-to-door inspections. Naomi Xu Elegant, Fortune, 22 Jan. 2021 Attempts to cordon off out-of-state students from voting in their campus towns or to roll back preregistration for teenagers have failed in New Hampshire and Virginia. Neil Vigdor, New York Times, 29 Mar. 2023 Texas National Guard members, deployed by the state to El Paso this week, used razor wire to cordon off a gap in the border fence along a bank of the Rio Grande that became a popular crossing point for migrants who waded through shallow waters to approach immigration officials in recent days. Morgan Lee, Giovanna Dell'orto and Rebecca Santana, Chron, 21 Dec. 2022 Although American cities have also used caution tape to cordon off exercise equipment and benches, London health authorities appear to have been especially zealous in their taping frenzy; many of the tableaus Dench captured resemble works of installation art. Michael Hardy, Wired, 7 June 2020 To view what happened to women in Egypt as merely the product of an Arab or Muslim pathology, to view their experience as something pitiable and alien, would be to cordon them off once again in another way. Ursula Lindsey, The New York Review of Books, 9 Dec. 2022 Each use costs roughly $300,000, with workers dispatched to the artificial island, as patrol boats cordon off maritime traffic. Stefano Pitrelli, Washington Post, 26 Nov. 2022 How to cordon off the women’s section from the men’s. Dallas News, 11 Feb. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cordon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English coordone "cord worn in token of victory," borrowed from Middle French cordon "small cord, bowstring," going back to Old French, from corde "rope, string" + -on, diminutive suffix (going back to Latin -ō, -ōn-, suffix of nouns denoting persons with a prominent feature) — more at cord entry 1

Note: The sense "alignment of objects" appears to have originated in French in the 17th century; the military use ("line of military posts," etc.) is attested in French in the 18th century not long before it first appeared in English.

Verb

derivative of cordon entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1891, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cordon was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near cordon

Cite this Entry

“Cordon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cordon. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

Kids Definition

cordon

noun
cor·​don
ˈkȯrd-ᵊn,
ˈkȯ(ə)r-ˌdän
1
: an ornamental cord used especially on costumes
2
: a line of persons or things around a person or place
a cordon of police
3
: a cord or ribbon worn as a badge or decoration
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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