DROWN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does drown mean? 

• DROWN (verb)
  The verb DROWN has 6 senses:

1. cover completely or make imperceptible

2. get rid of as if by submerging

3. die from being submerged in water, getting water into the lungs, and asphyxiating

4. kill by submerging in water

5. be covered with or submerged in a liquid

6. be in danger of dying from submersion in a liquid and asphyxiation

  Familiarity information: DROWN used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DROWN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they drown    ... he / she / it drowns   
Past simple: drowned   
Past participle: drowned   
-ing form: drowning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover completely or make imperceptible

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

drown; overwhelm; submerge

Context example:

The noise drowned out her speech

Hypernyms (to "drown" is one way to...):

cover; spread over (form a cover over)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Also:

drown out (make imperceptible)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Get rid of as if by submerging

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

She drowned her trouble in alcohol

Hypernyms (to "drown" is one way to...):

do away with; eliminate; extinguish; get rid of (terminate, end, or take out)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Die from being submerged in water, getting water into the lungs, and asphyxiating

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The child drowned in the lake

Hypernyms (to "drown" is one way to...):

buy the farm; cash in one's chips; choke; conk; croak; decease; die; drop dead; exit; expire; give-up the ghost; go; kick the bucket; pass; pass away; perish; pop off; snuff it (pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 4

Meaning:

Kill by submerging in water

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

He drowned the kittens

Hypernyms (to "drown" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to drown the prisoners

Sense 5

Meaning:

Be covered with or submerged in a liquid

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

drown; swim

Context example:

the meat was swimming in a fatty gravy

Hypernyms (to "drown" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sense 6

Meaning:

Be in danger of dying from submersion in a liquid and asphyxiation

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

the divers saved the drowning child

Hypernyms (to "drown" is one way to...):

submerge; submerse (sink below the surface; go under or as if under water)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

He was gazing at her with an open admiration of which he was quite unconscious, and which was drowning, along with him, in the rising sea of embarrassment in which he floundered.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

She might talk on; and if he wanted to say any thing himself, he would only talk louder, and drown her voice.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I guess they were all drowned.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At the end of the seventh week, without intending it, too weak to resist, he drifted down to the village with Joe and drowned life and found life until Monday morning.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Good-bye, Lucifer, proud spirit,” Maud whispered, so low that it was drowned by the shouting of the wind; but I saw the movement of her lips and knew.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But as the mice were going over, the straw slipped away and fell into the water, and the six mice all fell in and were drowned.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Drowning can happen quickly and silently.

(Drowning, NIH)

But he was dead enough, for all that, being both shot and drowned, and was food for fish in the very place where he had designed my slaughter.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

For the third time the drowning man came to the surface, his hands full of green slimy water-plants, his eyes turned in despair to the shore.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was half drowned, and Hans and Pete threw themselves upon him, pounding the breath into him and the water out of him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)