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drown

[droun]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used without object)

to die under water or other liquid of suffocation.

verb (used with object)

to kill by submerging under water or other liquid.

to destroy or get rid of by, or as if by, immersion: He drowned his sorrows in drink.

to flood or inundate.

to overwhelm so as to render inaudible, as by a louder sound (often followed by out).

to add too much water or liquid to (a drink, food, or the like).

EXPAND

to slake (lime) by covering with water and letting stand.

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Drown is one of our favorite verbs.

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chat, to converse

to run away hurriedly; flee.

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Verb phrase

drown in,

to be overwhelmed by: The company is drowning in bad debts.

to be covered with or enveloped in: The old movie star was drowning in mink.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English drounnen, Old English druncnian, perhaps by loss of c between nasals and shift of length from nn to ou

Related forms

drown·er, noun

half-drowned, adjective

half-drown·ing, adjective

un·drowned, adjective

Synonyms
4. deluge, engulf, submerge, drench, soak.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To drown

Example Sentences

If he drowned, as rescuers fear, he would be the second child to drown in the area in the span of a week.

The undertow pulls out the ground away and you drown.

The new owner's first worry would be an ocean of red ink in which any enterprise might drown.

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If he drowned, as rescuers fear, he would be the second child to drown in the area in the span of a week.

The undertow pulls out the ground away and you drown.

The new owner's first worry would be an ocean of red ink in which any enterprise might drown.

The animal thrashes and gushes blood and begins to drown in its own hemorrhage.

But if the water gets too deep, the plants can actually drown.

The reason people don't go pear bobbing is that they'd drown.

To do so would deprive it of oxygen and literally drown it.

Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war.

Yet he never falls into the trap of allowing that research to drown his work.

They also frequently get tangled in fishing nets and drown.

Vaquita easily become entangled in the nets and drown.

The coffee stirrers are so the bees can get out of the syrup before they drown.

Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths.

Alcohol made him depressed, though, and to drown the pain he drank more.

The calves are often born tail first so they don't drown.

They have prepared insuperable defences against wind, rain and snow that would drown and ravage their hives.

Celebrate wins or drown your sorrows with a post-race martini at the bar.

At the bottom of each slippery-sided leaf is a pool of water into which unlucky insects fall and drown.

After those few benefits are bestowed upon you, you must swim or drown.

Earthworms move to the surface when it rains so they won't drown.

There is enough nonsense on both the pro and con sides already to easy drown out reasonable ideas in the noise.

In fact, the conversation started by this conversation piece would easily drown out the music it produces.

Instead people supported a long, drown out cancer over a quick, yet painful broken bone.

Turtles are also killed when they drown in fishing nets.

The animals take the bait, drown or get caught on the hooks and die.

If he continues it, he will drown in the economic crisis.

It got too popular and the drunks would fall into the river and drown.

If hooked while trying to steal the bait before the line sinks, they drown.

People can literally drown in their own body fluids.

But a vicious backlash could drown out that message.

Fawcett simply turned up the volume on the television to drown out the noise.

Drink too much water and you will throw up or drown.

If that happened, seawater would fill the deck in a matter of minutes and drown them all.

Dams often drown wildlife habitat and block migratory fish from their spawning grounds.

Wear a pair of noise-canceling headphones to drown out office chatter.

They tried to flush it out with eardrops, but they only managed to drown it.

They come out in droves to feast on the insects and invertebrates that must leave the soil or drown.

Small children can easily drown in water they can stand in.

Storm surge-the buildup of water at a storm's center-can drown a coastline.

But when our stomachs begin to growl, too often they drown out any good advice coming from our brains.

I'd step out of my downtown office and hear the roar of birds in all the trees, so loud it could drown out conversation.

The pitcher plant captures water in its vaselike shoots to drown unsuspecting insects, then secretes acids and enzymes.

As the world skids deeper into recession today, workers are resisting the temptation to drown their sorrows in booze.

It is no wonder that so many people drown in our swim or sink system.

The snarl and stench of the nerve-jangling traffic nearly drown out the joke.

It is also known as the country likely to be the first to drown when global warming raises sea levels.

The seabirds become unintentionally hooked and drown and become what's known as bycatch.

When you try to drown someone, or hang them, they usually fight back.

As long as it's deep enough for them to drown in, they will.

It drums drown on the rooftops, drowning out the sound of speech.

The image shows how light pollution can drown out even the dense gathering of stars in the galactic plane.

Save himself, that is, from the steady stream of information that flows into his office and threatens to drown him.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

drown (draʊn)

—vb (sometimes foll by out)
1.	to die or kill by immersion in liquid
2.	(tr) to destroy or get rid of as if by submerging: he drowned his sorrows in drink
3.	(tr) to drench thoroughly; inundate; flood
4.	to render (a sound) inaudible by making a loud noise

[C13: probably from Old English druncnian; related to Old Norse drukna to be drowned]

'drowner

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

drown

c.1300, perhaps from O.E. druncnian "be swallowed up by water" (originally of ships as well as living things), from base of drincan "to drink." Modern form is from northern England dialect, probably influenced by O.N. drukna "be drowned." Related: Drowned; drowning.

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Drown definition

(Ex. 15:4; Amos 8:8; Heb. 11:29). Drowning was a mode of capital punishment in use among the Syrians, and was known to the Jews in the time of our Lord. To this he alludes in Matt. 18:6.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

drown

In addition to the idioms beginning with drown, also see like a drowned rat.

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Idioms & Phrases

drown

like a drowned rat

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"Good swimmers drown and good riders get thrown."

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