maroon

Saymuh-ROONUS/məˈɹun//məˈɹuːn/AUS/məˈɹəʉn/

Noun pluralmaroons

Verbmaroons, marooning, marooned

8 meanings of maroon

Practice

1
dark red coloredadjective
Of a rich, dark red color with a somewhat brownish tone.
The university's maroon banners hung from every lamppost on campus.
She repainted the front door maroon to match the brick.
Similarburgundy, claret, oxblood
2
dark rednouncountable or uncountable
A rich, dark red color, somewhat brownish in tone, deeper than crimson.
The leather sofa came in maroon, navy, and forest green.
By late October, the vineyard's leaves had turned a dusky maroon.
Similarburgundy, claret, oxblood
Note
The color is a different word that happens to share a spelling with the fugitive one. It comes from French marron, "chestnut; brown", and is a doublet of marron, the sweet chestnut. Ben Long asks in The Nikon D90 Companion whether something is "a really dark maroon or a lighter maroon".
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
The color word and the fugitive word have different etymologies. en.wiktionary.org
The color word derives from French marron. en.wikipedia.org
French marron means chestnut and brown. en.wiktionary.org
The color word is a doublet of marron meaning sweet chestnut. en.wiktionary.org
Ben Long's The Nikon D90 Companion contains the quoted comparison. en.wiktionary.org
3
leave strandedverbtransitive
To abandon someone in a remote, desolate place, such as a desert island.
Mutineers marooned the navigator on an uninhabited atoll with a week's provisions.
Captains sometimes threatened to maroon troublemakers rather than hang them.
UsageUsually passive: marooned on an island, marooned at sea, marooned by snow.
Similarstrand, abandon, desert
Note
Whatever does the marooning need not be a person. Modern Railways in 1963 has an avalanche marooning a locomotive, and Adam Serwer in 2025 uses the word for a government leaving its own citizens stranded abroad. The image of a desert island has widened into any state of being cut off and left.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
A 1963 Modern Railways caption describes an avalanche marooning a locomotive. en.wiktionary.org
Adam Serwer used maroon in 2025 for the possibility of a government abandoning its citizens abroad. theatlantic.com
4
escaped slavenouncountable
A Black person who escaped slavery in the Caribbean or the Americas, or a descendant of one.
The Maroons of Jamaica signed a treaty with the British in 1739.
Historians traced the family back to a Maroon who founded a free settlement in Suriname.
UsageUsually capitalized as the name of a people: the Maroons of Jamaica, a Maroon community.
Note
The word first described the runaway: French marron, "feral, fugitive", from Spanish cimarrón, "wild, fugitive". The castaway and the verb share this origin. An older label, Bush Negro, is archaic and offensive. Maroon is the respectful name to use.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The runaway sense preceded the castaway sense. en.wiktionary.org
Maroon in the fugitive sense comes through French marron from Spanish cimarrón, with the meanings given. en.wiktionary.org
Bush Negro is an archaic and offensive label for a Maroon. en.wiktionary.org
5
of escaped slavesadjective
Associated with the culture, communities, or peoples of the Maroons of the Caribbean and the Americas.
Maroon settlements in Suriname preserved African building styles and farming methods.
Scholars recorded Maroon oral histories passed down through generations.
UsageUsually capitalized, as with other names of peoples: Maroon culture, Maroon settlements.
Note
Capitalization varies. Cynthia James writes of "maroon culture" in lowercase alongside "Nanny of the Maroons" with a capital.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Cynthia James uses lowercase "maroon culture" alongside capitalized "Nanny of the Maroons". legacy.chass.ncsu.edu

Less common meanings

6
foolnounslangcountable
An idiot; a fool, typically used as a comic insult.
What kind of maroon tries to microwave a metal bowl?
He called himself a maroon for locking the keys in the car again.
UsageOften used in the exclamation what a maroon!, including about yourself.
Similarclown, buffoon, chump, dolt, bozo
Note
A joke built on a mispronunciation: Bugs Bunny said moron as "maroon", and the cartoon's version stuck. The comic sound softens it, so it often lands on the speaker. In S. Watts Taylor's Tarnish, a narrator kept awake by an espresso groans, "What a maroon!"
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The insult derives from an intentional mispronunciation of "moron" used by Bugs Bunny. en.wiktionary.org
S. Watts Taylor's Tarnish contains a first-person narrator's self-reproach, "What a maroon!", concerning an espresso and anticipated sleeplessness. en.wiktionary.org
7
signal fireworknouncountable
A rocket firework that explodes with a loud report, often used as a signal: for example, to summon a lifeboat crew or warn of an air raid.
Two maroons fired from the station roused the volunteer lifeboat crew before dawn.
The wardens launched a maroon to warn the town of approaching bombers.
Note
A signaling firework from seafaring and civil defense, built for noise more than light. In 1887 The Chemist and Druggist describes one as a ball of string formed into a bomb. Alan C. Jenkins tells of lifeboat horses that learned to recognize the maroon fired to call out the crew. The name's origin is unknown. Bernard Shaw puns on it in Too True to Be Good, where a countess hears "maroons" and thinks of a confectioner's.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts
Maroons were used to summon lifeboat crews. rnli.org
Maroons were used for civil-defense warnings. api.parliament.uk
The firework's principal signalling effect was sound. gutenberg.org
The Chemist and Druggist described a maroon as a string-ball bomb in 1887; Wiktionary reproduces the passage with a November 5, 1887 citation. en.wiktionary.org
Alan C. Jenkins described lifeboat horses recognizing the maroon that summoned the crew; the passage is reproduced under Introducing Horses. en.wiktionary.org
The origin of the firework name is unknown. en.wiktionary.org
Bernard Shaw wrote Too True to Be Good. gutenberg.net.au
The character labelled the Countess mistakes the fireworks for confectionery. gutenberg.net.au
8
nounrare
A castaway; a person who has been abandoned or stranded in a remote, desolate place.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of maroon apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 3–5

From French marron ("feral; fugitive"), an adjective taken from Spanish cimarrón, meaning "fugitive, wild, or feral".

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

English maroon derives from the French adjective marron, meaning feral or fugitive. en.wikipedia.org
French marron derives from Spanish cimarrón. en.wiktionary.org
Spanish cimarrón has the meanings fugitive, wild, or feral. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 1–2

Borrowed from French marron ("chestnut; brown"), which traces back through Italian marrone to Byzantine Greek μάραον (máraon). It is a doublet of marron ("sweet chestnut").

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

Maroon was borrowed from French marron, meaning chestnut or brown. en.wiktionary.org
French marron derives from Italian marrone. en.wiktionary.org
Italian marrone derives from Greek μάραον, transliterated máraon. en.wiktionary.org
Byzantine Greek is another name for Medieval Greek. en.wikipedia.org
Maroon is a doublet of marron, meaning sweet chestnut. en.wiktionary.org

Meaning 7

Probably from French marron ("chestnut"), also a French name for a firework that bursts with a bang, like a chestnut bursting in a fire.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

Laura Wright's historical study derives the firework name from French marron, meaning chestnut. api.repository.cam.ac.uk

Meaning 6

This is how the cartoon character Bugs Bunny deliberately mispronounced "moron," and the word grew out of his use of it.