drown
Americanverb (used without object)
-
drowns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
drowned,
past participle, past
-
drowning
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
drowns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
drowned,
past participle, past
-
drowning
present participle
-
to kill by submerging under water or other liquid.
-
to destroy or get rid of by, or as if by, immersion.
He drowned his sorrows in drink.
-
to flood or inundate.
-
to overwhelm so as to render inaudible, as by a louder sound (often followed byout ).
-
to add too much water or liquid to (a drink, food, or the like).
-
to slake (lime) by covering with water and letting stand.
verb phrase
verb
-
to die or kill by immersion in liquid
-
(tr) to destroy or get rid of as if by submerging
he drowned his sorrows in drink
-
(tr) to drench thoroughly; inundate; flood
-
to render (a sound) inaudible by making a loud noise
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
drownsimple
-
drownssimple
-
have drownedperfect
-
has drownedperfect
-
am drowningprogressive
-
are drowningprogressive
-
is drowningprogressive
-
have been drowningperfect progressive
-
has been drowningperfect progressive
Past
-
drownedsimple
-
had drownedperfect
-
was drowningprogressive
-
were drowningprogressive
-
had been drowningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of drown
1250–1300; Middle English drounnen, Old English druncnian, perhaps by loss of c between nasals and shift of length from nn to ou
Explanation
The verb drown means to die from inhaling water into the lungs and being unable to breathe. It is possible to drown in even a small amount of water, so it's important to learn proper water safety. You can also use this verb with a direct object: for example, a flash flood might drown animals that live near a river. You can drown things in a less literal way as well. If you drink alcoholic beverages to forget your troubles, for example, you can say you're trying to "drown your sorrows." If you're submerged in a tidal wave of school assignments, then you are "drowning in work."
Vocabulary lists containing drown
"Old World New World" and "The Log of Christopher Columbus"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Spelling Practice 2, Unit 8
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Hylton calls for more research into why these children are so much more likely to drown.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Secular Israelis were prepared with a counter-protest, blowing whistles to drown out the chants and with some wearing pink lapel buttons showing a middle finger.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
I added enough hot sauce to drown out the lemon.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026
Allow the dreams to flow like water through your body, so they don’t drown you.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
I drift off, and a wave of thoughts hits me, threatening to pull me into the undertow and drown me.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
“As much as they say it’s about free speech, it actually drowns out speech.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
In Hamlet, Ophelia, his wife, a young noblewoman from Denmark, goes mad and drowns.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2025
In the play—spoiler alert—Ophelia drowns in a river after her father is murdered by Hamlet, whom she may have been in love with.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025
But I have quite enjoyed the platform’s small selection, because it spares me from the paralysis of endless choice that drowns me on Netflix.
From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2025
Dylan starts to say something more but laughter drowns out his words as Lara and a group of her friends surround our table.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
The executives in charge of programming know that these movies will get watched simply because they’re on Netflix, and then they will be drowned by another wave of content.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
The paper says the father who drowned with his partner and teenage daughter was a refugee who fled Palestine a decade ago.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
In January, at least 26 people drowned when a boat carrying farmers and fishermen from Jigawa to Yobe state capsized.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
They said Erndt was 42 years old when he drowned in the lake in August 2002.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Inside Natalie’s hoodie, Churro coughed and squirmed, swamped but not drowned.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
"Our mission, and our tasking is to rescue those women, children and men in danger of drowning," he added.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Spirit was Boeing’s sole-source supplier for nearly all the products Spirit sold to it, and Spirit itself was drowning in losses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Some of the medical and scientific skepticism is a result of people feeling adrift in a rapidly changing world and drowning in competing information.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026
That's when cold water can cause a sudden heart attack by increasing your heart rate, or making you gasp for breath and inhaling water directly into the lungs, leading to drowning.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
And so much of his brain was drowning in thoughts like, All those times I said the Pledge of Allegiance at school—doesn’t that count for anything?
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
