drown
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See also: Drown
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin.
The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian.[1] 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”)).[2] Funk & Wagnall's has 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. ODS)[3] 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",[1] unless one considers the possibility of an unattested variant in Old Norse *drunkna.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]drown (third-person singular simple present drowns, present participle drowning, simple past and past participle drowned)
- (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.
- (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- 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:
- (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'.
- 2000 June 17, Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet”, in America[1], volume 182, number 21:
- The first-century Jewish woman Miriam of Nazareth, also held in faith to be Theotokos, the God-bearer, is arguably the most celebrated woman in the Christian tradition. One could almost drown surveying the ways different eras have honored her in painting, sculpture, icons, architecture, music and poetry; venerated her with titles, liturgies, prayers and feasts; and taught about her in spiritual writings, theology and official doctrine.
- (transitive, figurative) To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.
- He drowns his sorrows in buckets of chocolate ice cream.
- 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum[2], 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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:
- 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[acob] 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[ndrew] 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.
- (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
[edit]When using the term figuratively to describe overwhelming sounds, the form drown out is now usually employed.
Synonyms
[edit]- (to kill by suffocating in water or another liquid): noyade
- (to cover, as with water): flood, inundate
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to be suffocated in fluid
|
to deprive of life by immersion in liquid
|
to overwhelm in water
|
to overpower
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 OED: drown, v. (subscription required)
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “drown”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ “drukne” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog: oldn. drukkna (eng. drown er laant fra nord.) (in English: Old Norse drukkna (the English drown is a loanword from Old Norse))
Anagrams
[edit]Welsh
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]drown
- Soft mutation of trown.
Mutation
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