drown
verb
- die from submersion in water (inability to breathe)
- completely immerse something in a liquid
- to cause (a sound) not to be heard by making a loud noise —usually used with out
- to cover completely or make imperceptible
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /dɹaʊn/ / [d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷaʊn] / /dɹuːn/
name
- A surname.
verb
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.
- To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.
“When I was a baby, I nearly drowned in the bathtub.”
“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.”
- To kill by suffocating in water or another liquid.
“The car thief fought with an officer and tried to drown a police dog before being shot while escaping.”
“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:”
- 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.”
“Penny Guy: Bloody hell, Rog, whadda you want? / Roger O'Neill: To drown in your arms and hide in yer eyes, darlin'.”
- To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.
“He drowns his sorrows in buckets of chocolate ice cream.”
“Though most men being in sensuall pleasures drownd, / It seemes their Soules but in the Senses are.”
- 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.”