drown

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Contents

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

Origin uncertain.

  • The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian [1]. Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, "probably influenced" by Old Norse drukkna (cf. Danish drukne) [2]. Funk & Wagnall's has Middle English drounen, drūnen, '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].

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Verb

Infinitive
to drown

Third person singular
drowns

Simple past
drowned

Past participle
drowned

Present participle
drowning

to drown (third-person singular simple present drowns, present participle drowning, simple past and past participle drowned)

  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"
  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.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Translations

to be suffocated in fluid
to deprive of life by immerson in liquid
to overwhelm in water
to overpower
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

[edit] References

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

[edit] Anagrams

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