Definition of "platoon" []

• A subdivision of a company of troops consisting of two or more squads or sections and usually commanded by a lieutenant. (noun)
• A group of people working, traveling, or assembled together: a platoon of firefighters; buses carrying platoons of tourists. (noun)
• Sports A group of players within a team, especially a football team, that is trained and sent into or withdrawn from play as a unit: the defensive platoon. (noun)
• To play (a player) in alternation with another player in the same position: platooned the two catchers. (verb-transitive)
• To use alternate players at the same position. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "That's because there isn't one specific focal character; if anything, the platoon is the focal character."
• "The platoon is also required to promote an uneasy hearts-and-minds policy among notionally friendly locals."
• "The Navy announced last year it would name a destroyer after Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who used his helmet and body to cover a grenade in Iraq on April 14, 2004, protecting members of his platoon from the bulk of the blast, according to the Department of Defense's "Heroes in the War on Terror" website."