drown, v.
(draʊn)
Forms: 4–6 drun(e, droun(e, (4 drounne, druen, 4–5 drone, 5–6 drowen, Sc. drwn), 4–7 drowne, 4– drown. β. 6 dround, 6–7 drownd (now dial. and vulg.)
[ME. drūn-, droun-, drown-, pointing to an OE. *dr{uacu}nian, not found: origin obscure.
A current conjecture is that ME. drūn- was a phonetic reduction of ME. drunkn- or ON. drukn- (see drunken v.1) in the same sense. But, on phonetic and other grounds, this appears highly improbable. The later variant drownd, so widely prevalent in dialectal and vulgar use, is parallel in development to astound, bound, compound, sound, etc.]
I. Intransitive.
Considered ‘unusual’ by N.E.D. in 1897.
1. To suffer death by submersion in water; to perish by suffocation under water (or other liquid).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 11793 Pharaon wit al his folk..Al þai drund in þe se. c 1300 Ibid. 24867 (Edin.) Al mon we druen [v. rr. drun, droun]. 1375 Barbour Bruce xiv. 358 Thai in perell war till droune. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 256 b/1 He fylle in the water and drowned. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 38 Narcissus..for loue of eccho..drounit in ane drau vel. 1654 D. Osborne Lett. lxii. (1888) 292 If I drown by the way, this will be my last letter. 1856 Grindon Life v. (1875) 59 The bird and the mammal drown if submerged in water. 1924 A. D. Sedgwick Little French Girl i. viii. 70 She had the sensation of drowning yet of keeping calm while she drowned. 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 31 Aug. 152/1 Public opinion is like the crowd that watches a man drown while convinced that something ought to be done. 1970 Which? June 171/1 Become exhausted and drown without lifejacket. |
| fig. 1382 Wyclif 1 Esdras iii. 23 Whan of win thei drownyn. c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 42 Our life..drownes in time. 1902 A. Symons Poems I. 119, I sicken with a wild desire, I drown in sweetness. 1957 S. Smith Not waving but Drowning 13, I was much too far out all my life. And not waving but drowning. |
† 2. To sink and perish (as a ship); to suffer extinction or destruction by deluge or inundation.
Obs.| a 1300 Cursor M. 24857 Þair scip ai redi for to drun [v.r. droun]. c 1340 Ibid. 1532 (Fairf.) Þis werlde sulde come til ende To droun or wiþ fire be brende. c 1470 Henry Wallace vii. 182 Trubbill weddyr makis schippis to droune. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. (1812) I. cxx. 144 One of the scafoldes drowned in y⊇ water, and the moost part of them that were within it. |
II. Transitive.
3. a. To suffocate (a person or animal) by submersion in water (or other liquid).
Mostly with personal agent, or reflexive or passive; but also said of the action of the water.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1652, I sal þam alle in watur droun [v. rr. drenkil, drenche]. Ibid. 5592 Pharaon þat king felun Þat badd þe childer for to drun [v.r. droun]. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiii. 151 Sum ware drouned by violence of þe wawes. c 1511 1st Eng. Bk. Amer. (Arb.) Introd. 32/2 Ther they drowne theym self. 1533 Gau Richt Vay (1888) 58 Thay var drunit in y⊇ fluid. 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 239 b, He..was prively drouned in a But of Malvesey. 1632 Lithgow Trav. iii. 109 [He] here leaped in, and drouned himselfe. Ibid. v. 178 The last flood did drowne the greatest part of the Inhabitants. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 149 The earth shall..drown him in her dry and gusty gulfs. 1847 Tennyson Princ. Prol. 47 Part were drown'd within the whirling brook. 1869 C. Gibbon R. Gray iv, My faither's drooned. |
| β 1530 Palsgr. 528/2, I dreynt (Lydgate), I drownde, je noye. 1644 Prynne Vind. Ps. cv. 15 (ed. 3) A iij b, God..drownded Pharaoh and his host in the read sea. 1727 Swift Past. Dial. Wks. 1814 XIV. 195 In my own Thames may I be drownded. |
b. fig. (Also
refl.)
| 1388 Wyclif 1 Esdras iii. 23 Whanne thei han be drowned of wyn..thei han no mynde what thinges thei diden. 1555 Eden Decades To Rdr. (Arb.) 51 Men..drowned in the deluge of erroure. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 435 They drown themselves in drink. 1788 F. Burney Diary 29 Nov., Her Majesty..drowned in tears. 1827 Pollok Course T. vii, He drowned himself in sleep, in wine. |
| β c 1679 Roxb. Ball. (1886) VI. 146 They dy'd..in Seas of sorrow Drownded. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. v, ‘Just fill that mug up with lukewarm water, William, will you?’..‘Why the milk will be drownded’. |
† 4. To sink (a ship or the like) in water; to send to the bottom.
Obs.| c 1465 Eng. Chron. (Camden 1856) 43 On of the grettist carrakez..was so rent and bored in the sides..that sone aftir it was dround. c 1500 Melusine xxxvi. 270 His peuple assaylled strongly, and drowned foure of the sarasyns shippes. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 46 Brasse and lead in the masse or lumpe sinke downe and are drowned. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ii. 66 In that fight [Lepanto] there was taken and drowned 180 of Turkish Gallies. |
5. a. To lay under or cover with water, etc.; to submerge, flood, inundate, deluge; to drench.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1532 Þat þis werld suld cum til end, Or drund wit watur, or wit fir brend. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxii. 100 My visage all in watter dround. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 19 The watter of the Temse by excesse of floode..incresid on the londe unto Populer, and drownyd many howsys and feldes and medowes. 1696 Phil. Trans. XIX. 353 When the Fens are drowned. 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 29 Seueral good Collieries..lye unwrought and drowned for want of such Noble Engines. 1861 W. Rankine Steam Engine 151 A weir is said to be drowned when the water in the channel below it is higher than its crest. |
| β 1667 Primatt City & C. Build. 7 The works in mines of Lead or Tin Oare, are like..to be drownded. |
b. to drown out: to put or drive out by inundation; to stop (works, etc.) or drive (people, etc.) from their habitation by flooding.
| 1851 S. Judd Margaret i. iii, Chilion fished, hunted, laid traps for foxes, drowned out woodchucks. 1888 Pall Mall G. 28 Aug. 3/2 The [Severn Tunnel] works were constantly ‘drowned out’. 1890 Baker Wild Beasts & their Ways I. 186 During inundations the islands are frequently drowned out. 1894 Daily News 23 Nov. 6/7 Deserted cottages, whose tenants had..been ‘drowned out’. |
6. a. transf. and
fig. To overwhelm, to overpower, by rising above like a flood; to immerse or smother; to overpower (sound) by greater loudness.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 18361 Þou slockens al vr sin; Þou has þam drund and don forfare. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xiii. (1495) 57 The more the resonable soule drowneth hym in to the body the more slowely and the lesse perfytely he vnderstondyth. 1538 Starkey England i. ii. 42 They wych haue theyr myndys drownyd in the vayn plesurys of thys lyfe. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. I. 23/1 Ludsgate,..vnto this daie it is called Ludgate, (s) onelie drowned in pronuntiation of the word. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. vii. §2 The sound..was drowned by some louder noise. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. 53 Vice drowns the noble Ideas of the Soul. 1726 Leoni tr. Alberti's Archit. I. 43/1 Little pieces of..Stone..which they perfectly drowned in Mortar. 1769 Sir W. Jones Poems (1777) 25 His heavenly charms..drown'd her senses in a flood of light. 1879 Froude Cæsar xiii. 175 Yells drowned his voice. |
| β 1550 Crowley Way to Wealth 398 Thy curate (that otherwise wold mumble in the mouth and drounde his wordes). 1884 Harper's Mag. Feb. 401/2 He had a beautiful voice. He could drownd out the whole choir. |
† b. Law. To extinguish by merging in something greater or higher. Also
intr. To merge.
Obs.| 1642 tr. Perkins' Prof. Bk. ix. §584. 254 If the estate in remainder or in reversion be such an estate wherein the particular estate may be drowned. Ibid. §589. 256 An estate for life cannot drown in an estate for yeares. 1661 J. Stephens Procurations 54 Estates in land are properly drowned or confounded, when a lesser estate concurs with a greater in the same person, and in the same right. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 109 The reversionary interest coming to the possession, drowns it. |