drown

English

Etymology

From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin.

The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian. Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, ġedruncnian (> Middle English drunknen, dronknen (“to drown”)), "probably influenced" by Old Norse drukkna (cf. Icelandic drukkna, Danish drukne (“to drown”)). Funk & Wagnall's has 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. ODS) that it may represent a direct loan of Old Norse drukkna, but this is described by the OED as being "on phonetic and other grounds highly improbable", unless one considers the possibility of an unattested variant in Old Norse *drunkna.

Pronunciation

• enPR: droun, IPA^(key): /dɹaʊn/,

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊn

Verb

drown (third-person singular simple present drowns, present participle drowning, simple past and past participle drowned)

1. (intransitive) To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.

   Synonym: (obsolete) drench

   When I was a baby, I nearly drowned in the bathtub.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, , →OCLC:

     Old woes, not infant sorrows, bear them mild / Continuance tames the one; the other wild, / Like an unpractised swimmer plunging still, / With too much labour drowns for want of skill.

2. (transitive) To kill by suffocating in water or another liquid.

   Synonym: (obsolete) drench

   The car thief fought with an officer and tried to drown a police dog before being shot while escaping.

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     The pretty-vaulting sea refused to drown me, / Knowing that thou wouldst have me drown’d on shore, / With tears as salt as sea, through thy unkindness:

3. (intransitive) To be flooded: to be inundated with or submerged in (literally) water or (figuratively) other things; to be overwhelmed.

   We are drowning in information but starving for wisdom.

   • 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 2:

     Penny Guy: Bloody hell, Rog, whadda you want? / Roger O'Neill: To drown in your arms and hide in yer eyes, darlin'.

4. (transitive, figurative) To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.

   He drowns his sorrows in buckets of chocolate ice cream.

   • 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum‎, London: John Standish, page 19:

     Though most men being in sensuall pleasures drownd, / It seemes their Soules but in the Senses are.

   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Come, thou monarch of the vine, / Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne! / In thy fats our cares be drown’d, / With thy grapes our hairs be crown’d:

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 23:

     My private Voice is drown’d amid the Senate’s.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XIV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A Millar, , →OCLC, book VII, pages 71–72:

     Unluckily that worthy Officer having, in a literal Sense, taken his Fill of Liquor, had been some Time retired to his Bolster, where he was snoaring so loud, that it was not easy to convey a Noise in at his Ears capable of drowning that which issued from his Nostrils.

5. (transitive, figurative, usually passive voice) To obscure, particularly amid an overwhelming volume of other items.

   The answers intelligence services seek are often drowned in the flood of information they can now gather.

Usage notes

When using the term figuratively to describe overwhelming sounds, the form drown out is now usually employed.

Synonyms

• (to kill by suffocating in water or another liquid): noyade
• (to cover, as with water): flood, inundate

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• N-word, n-word

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drou̯n/

Verb

drown

1. Soft mutation of trown.

Mutation