cordon

plural cordons

1. archaicA ribbon normally worn diagonally across the chest as a decoration or insignia of rank etc.
2. A line of people or things placed around an area to enclose or protect it.

   1 more example

   Questing for high adventures among boulders and rocky tors, and cursing a heart made of stone, for in this wild desolation he finds nought but misadventures, love lashed him with a cruel whip, not with a gentle cordon; and when it scourged his nape Don Quixote here shed tears for his absent Dulcinea of Toboso.

   Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 207

3. ball gamesThe arc of fielders on the off side, behind the batsman: the slips and gully.
4. biologyA woody plant, such as a fruit tree, pruned and trained to grow as a single stem on a support.

present singular third person cordons · participle present cordoning · participle past cordoned · past cordoned

1. transitiveSynonym of cordon off.

   Strong detachments of infantry instead of gendarmes cordoned the streets leading to the Lycée.

   1899, William Harding, Dreyfus: the Prisoner of Devil's Island, page 121

   Synonyms: cordon off

plural Cordons

1. A surname.