Examples of cordon in a Sentence
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
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
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
Noun
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Verb
1891, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing cordon
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.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
cordon
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on cordon
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for cordon
Nglish: Translation of cordon for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of cordon for Arabic Speakers
Share