drown - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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.

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

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

to be suffocated in fluid

to deprive of life by immersion in liquid

to overwhelm in water

to overpower

Translations to be checked

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 OED: drown, v. (subscription required)
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “drown”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  3. ^ “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))

drown

  1. soft mutation of trown