drown
pronunciation
How to pronounce drown in British English:
UK [draʊn]
How to pronounce drown in American English:
US [draʊn]
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- Verb:
- cover completely or make imperceptible
- get rid of as if by submerging
- die from being submerged in water, getting water into the lungs, and asphyxiating
- kill by submerging in water
Word Origin
- drown
- drown: [13] Drown is not found in texts until the end of the 13th century (when it began to replace the related drench in the sense ‘suffocate in water’) but an Old English verb *drūnian could well have existed. The earliest occurrences of the word are from the North of England and Scotland, which suggests a possible borrowing from, or influence of, Old Norse drukna ‘be drowned’; this came ultimately from Germanic *drungk-, a variant of the base which produced English drink.=> drench, drink
- drown (v.)
- c. 1300, transitive and intransitive, perhaps from an unrecorded derivative word of Old English druncnian (Middle English druncnen) "be swallowed up by water" (originally of ships as well as living things), probably from the base of drincan "to drink." Modern form is from northern England dialect, probably influenced by Old Norse drukna "be drowned." Related: Drowned; drowning.
Example
- 1. In fact , without organization , you might drown in a sea of headlines .
- 2. Ornaments would mar our union ; they would come between thee and me ; their jingling would drown thy whispers .
- 3. I don 't think she meant to drown herself .
- 4. Children sometimes drown in bathtubs .
- 5. Children can drown in less than an inch of water .