drown

CEFRB1

/dɹaʊn/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To die or cause someone to die under water.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To be flooded: to be inundated with or submerged in (literally) water or (figuratively) other things; to be overwhelmed.

Examples

  • I might as well drown as starve.

  • Let the rain drown out your sorrow.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • /dɹuːn/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To kill by suffocating in water or another liquid.

  2. To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.

  3. To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.

More examples

In context

  • You won't drown if you learn how to swim.

  • The car thief fought with an officer and tried to drown a police dog before being shot while escaping.

  • We are drowning in information but starving for wisdom.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

If you cannot swim, you might blank in the deep pool quickly.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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.