# drown
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin.
The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian. 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”)). Funk & Wagnall's has 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. ODS) 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", unless one considers the possibility of an unattested variant in Old Norse *drunkna.

### Pronunciation

* enPR: droun, IPA: /dɹaʊn/, [d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷaʊn]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -aʊn

### Verb

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, 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, 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

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

#### Synonyms

* (to kill by suffocating in water or another liquid): noyade
* (to cover, as with water): flood, inundate

#### Derived terms

* a drowning man will clutch at a straw
* drownable
* drownage
* drowned
* drowned tube
* drownee
* drowner
* drowning
* drown one's sorrows
* drown out
* drownproof
* drown the miller
* overdrown
* surround and drown
* too much water drowned the miller
* undrown

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### References

* 1 2 OED: drown, v. (subscription required)
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “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

* N-word, n-word

## Welsh
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /drou̯n/

### Verb

drown
* Soft mutation of trown.

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.