dragoon

1. (Christianity, French politics, historical) To subject (a Huguenot) to the dragonnades (“a policy instituted by Louis XIV of France in 1681 to intimidate Protestant Huguenots to convert to Roman Catholicism by billeting dragoons (noun sense 1.2) in their homes to abuse them and destroy or steal their possessions”).Examples: "She [Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné] appears to have exulted in the extirpation of protestantism in Provence, by the power of her son-in-law, count de Gregnan [i.e., François Adhémar de Monteil, Comte de Grignan]; she even speaks with levity of the sufferings of the huguenots, dragooned into the bosom of the true church."; "This was the pious lady [Ninon de l’Enclos] who, in after times, expiated the faults of her youth by dragooning Huguenots into Catholics."Frenchhistoricaltransitive

2. (by extension)Examples: "In Politicks, I hear, you're ſtanch, / Directly bent againſt the French; / Deny to have your free-born Toe / Dragoon'd into a VVooden Shoe: […]"; "The next step was that suggested by Mr. Townsend, of quartering large bodies of troops upon the chief towns in the colonies, and demanding of the several colonial legislatures, a provision for their comfortable support and accommodation. […] Their object was perfectly understood: it was to curb the just and honourable spirit of the people; to dragoon them into submission to the parliamentary claim of taxation, and reduce them to the condition of vassals, governed by the right of conquest."; "[A]t any rate, he had shown Hardy that he wasn't to be dragooned into doing or not doing any thing."Synonyms: compelbroadlytransitive

3. (by extension)Examples: "He [Samuel Wilson] says, for example, that he is opposed to locking men up without trial, but he refrains from pledging himself to releasing the suspects. He says nothing about the necessity for dragooning the Irish for abolishing trial by jury."broadlyhistoricaltransitive