drown Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb cover completely or make imperceptible
    overwhelm; submerge.
    • I was drowned in work
    • The noise drowned out her speech
  2. verb get rid of as if by submerging
    • She drowned her trouble in alcohol
  3. verb die from being submerged in water, getting water into the lungs, and asphyxiating
    • The child drowned in the lake
  4. verb kill by submerging in water
    • He drowned the kittens
  5. verb be covered with or submerged in a liquid
    swim.
    • the meat was swimming in a fatty gravy

WordNet

Drown intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. drunen, drounen, earlier drunknen, druncnien, AS. druncnian to be drowned, sink, become drunk, fr. druncen drunken. See Drunken, Drink.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Drowned ; present participle & verbal noun Drowning
Definitions
  1. To be suffocated in water or other fluid; to perish in water.
    Methought, what pain it was to drown. Shak.
Drown transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To overwhelm in water; to submerge; to inundate. "They drown the land." Dryden.
  2. To deprive of life by immersion in water or other liquid.
  3. To overpower; to overcome; to extinguish; -- said especially of sound.
    Most men being in sensual pleasures drowned. Sir J. Davies.
    My private voice is drowned amid the senate. Addison.
    Holland.

Webster 1913