different between drown vs slink

English

Etymology

From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin.

The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *dr?nian . Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, ?edruncnian (> 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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: droun, IPA^(key): /d?a?n/, [d??????a?n]
• Rhymes: -a?n

Verb

drown (third-person singular simple present drowns, present participle drowning, simple past and past participle drowned)

1. (intransitive) To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.

   When I was a baby, I nearly drowned in the bathtub.

   • 1594, William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece,^[1]

     Old woes, not infant sorrows, bear them mild;

     Continuance tames the one; the other wild,

     Like an unpractised swimmer plunging still,

     With too much labour drowns for want of skill.

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.

   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene 2,^[2]

     The pretty-vaulting sea refused to drown me,

     Knowing that thou wouldst have me drown’d on shore,

     With tears as salt as sea, through thy unkindness:

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.

   • 1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 2:

     Penny Guy: Bloody hell, Rog, whadda you want?
     Roger O'Neill: To drown in your arms and hide in yer eyes, darlin'.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.

   He drowns his sorrows in buckets of chocolate ice cream.

   • 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum, London: John Standish, p. 19,^[3]

     Though most men being in sensuall pleasures drownd,

     It seemes their Soules but in the Senses are.

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 7,^[4]

     Come, thou monarch of the vine,

     Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne!

     In thy fats our cares be drown’d,

     With thy grapes our hairs be crown’d:

   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy, London: J. Tonson, Act II, Scene 1, p. 23,^[5]

     My private Voice is drown’d amid the Senate’s.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 7, Chapter 14, pp. 71-72,^[6]

     Unluckily that worthy Officer having, in a literal Sense, taken his Fill of Liquor, had been some Time retired to his Bolster, where he was snoaring so loud, that it was not easy to convey a Noise in at his Ears capable of drowning that which issued from his Nostrils.

5. (transitive, figuratively, 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.

Usage notes

When using the term figuratively to describe overwhelming sounds, the form drown out is now usually employed.

Synonyms

• (to cover, as with water): flood, inundate

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• N-word, n-word

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drou?n/

Verb

drown

1. Soft mutation of trown.

Mutation

English

Etymology

From Middle English slynken, sclynken, from Old English slincan (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkan? (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleng-, *slenk- (“to turn; wind; twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak; crawl”). Cognate with West Frisian slinke, Dutch slinken (“to shrink; shrivel”), Low German slinken, Swedish slinka (“to glide”). Compare also German schleichen (“to slink”). More at sleek.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sl??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Verb

slink (third-person singular simple present slinks, present participle slinking, simple past and past participle slunk or slinked or slank)

1. (intransitive) To sneak about furtively.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act IV, Scene 2,^[1]

     As we do turn our backs

     From our companion thrown into his grave,

     So his familiars to his buried fortunes

     Slink all away, leave their false vows with him,

     Like empty purses pick’d; and his poor self,

     A dedicated beggar to the air,

     With his disease of all-shunn’d poverty,

     Walks, like contempt, alone.

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9^[2]

     Back to the thicket slunk the guilty serpent.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To give birth to an animal prematurely.

   a cow that slinks her calf

Translations

Noun

slink (countable and uncountable, plural slinks)

1. (countable) A furtive sneaking motion.
   • 1998, Beppie Noyes, Mosby, the Kennedy Center Cat (page 30)

     His slink became a stride; he held his tail high; his eyes began to look more curious than scared. But he was still cautious.

2. The young of an animal when born prematurely, especially a calf.
3. The meat of such a prematurely born animal.
4. (obsolete) A bastard child, one born out of wedlock.
5. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) A thievish fellow; a sneak.

Translations

Adjective

slink (comparative more slink, superlative most slink)

1. (Scotland) thin; lean

Anagrams

• kilns, links

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sl??k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Verb

slink

1. first-person singular present indicative of slinken
2. imperative of slinken

Anagrams

• links

Swedish

Verb

slink

1. imperative of slinka.