Drown

Pronunciation

• enPR: droun, IPA: /draÊŠn/
• Rhymes: -aÊŠn

Origin

Origin uncertain.

• The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drÅ«nian

OED: drown, v. (subscription required)

. Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, "probably influenced" by Old Norse drukkna (cf. Danish drukne)

Online Etymology Dictionary|drown

. Funk & Wagnall's has Middle English drounen, drūnen, 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. )

ODS online|drukne: oldn. drukkna (eng. drown er laant fra nord.) (in English: Old Norse drukkna (the English drown is a loanword from Old Norse))

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"

.

Full definition of drown

Verb

1. (intransitive) To be suffocated in water or other fluid; to perish by such suffocation.
2. (transitive) To deprive of life by immersion in water or other liquid.
3. (transitive) To overwhelm in water; to submerge; to inundate.
4. (transitive) To overpower; to overcome; to extinguish; — said especially of sound; usually in the form "to drown out".
• Sir J. Daviesmost men being in sensual pleasures drowned
• AddisonMy private voice is drowned amid the senate.
5. (transitive) To lose, make hard to find or unnoticeable in an abundant mass.''The CIA gathers so much information that the actual answers it should seek are often drowned in the incessant flood of reports, recordings, satellite images etc.

Derived terms

• drowned
• drowner
• drowning
• drown one's sorrows
• drown out

Synonyms

• (overwhelm) flood

Anagrams

• n-word