Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Left in a place from which one cannot escape; isolated and abandoned: The state of being stranded or cut off, typically in a remote or desolate location, without means of departure or communication.
   • Describing something that is stuck or left behind: Can refer to objects or people that are isolated or forsaken.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The sailors were marooned on a desert island after the mutiny.
  • The heavy snowfall left many travelers marooned at the airport overnight.
  • The old car, marooned in the field, had been there for decades.

Advanced Usage

• "to be marooned": A common passive construction describing the state of being abandoned or isolated.
  • The research team found themselves marooned when their radio failed.
• Used figuratively to describe a feeling of social or emotional isolation.
  • After moving to a new city, she felt marooned and friendless.

Variants and Related Words

• Maroon (verb): To leave someone isolated and helpless in a remote place.
  • The captain threatened to maroon any thief on the next uninhabited shore.
• Stranded (adjective): Left in a difficult or helpless position; very similar in meaning to "marooned."
• Isolated (adjective): Far away from other places, buildings, or people; remote.

Synonyms

• Stranded: Left in a difficult or helpless position.
• Abandoned: Having been deserted or left.
• Forsaken: Abandoned or deserted.
• Cast away: Thrown aside or abandoned.

Related Phrasal Verbs/Constructions

(Note: "Marooned" is primarily an adjective. The related verb "maroon" does not commonly form phrasal verbs.) - To be left high and dry: To be left in a difficult situation without help or resources. (Idiom with a similar sense of abandonment) - When the company went bankrupt, the employees were left high and dry.

Related Idioms

• A castaway: A person who has been shipwrecked and stranded in an isolated place. This noun is closely related to the state of being marooned.
  • He lived like a castaway on the island for three years.

Adjective

1. cut off or left behind
   • an isolated pawn
   • several stranded fish in a tide pool
   • travelers marooned by the blizzard