drown

Etymology

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.

verb

1. (intransitive) To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.
   When I was a baby, I nearly drowned in the bathtub.
2. (transitive) To kill by suffocating in water or another liquid.
   The car thief fought with an officer and tried to drown a police dog before being shot while escaping.
3. (intransitive) To be flooded: to be inundated with or submerged in (literally) water or (figuratively) other things; to be overwhelmed.
   We are drowning in information but starving for wisdom.
   Penny Guy: Bloody hell, Rog, whadda you want? / Roger O'Neill: To drown in your arms and hide in yer eyes, darlin'. 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 2
4. (transitive, figurative) To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.
   He drowns his sorrows in buckets of chocolate ice cream.
   Though most men being in sensuall pleasures drownd, / It seemes their Soules but in the Senses are. 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum, London: John Standish, page 19
5. (transitive, figurative, usually passive) To obscure, particularly amid an overwhelming volume of other items.
   The answers intelligence services seek are often drowned in the flood of information they can now gather.