drowning

Pluraldrownings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of drown.

   Witnesses said the man was drowning in the surf before rescuers reached him.

   Drowning remains a leading cause of accidental death among young children.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of drown, so the surrounding words decide which one is meant. With be and no object, it describes the victim's struggle: the man was drowning. With an object, it means killing, as in drowning the rats, or smothering, as in the music drowning their voices. Drowning in debt or in paperwork is the overwhelmed use, and that one needs in.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   An occurrence of a person or animal dying by suffocation after being submerged in water or another liquid.

   The coroner ruled the death an accidental drowning.

   Several drownings were reported along the coast after the sudden storm.

   Note

   A countable noun, so incidents can be tallied in the plural: three drownings there last year. Here the victim is the one who drowns, a swimmer or animal overcome by water. When someone else does the drowning, the same word means being drowned by another, and only context separates the two. If the agent matters, name it.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An occurrence of a person or animal being killed through submersion in water, typically at the hands of another.

   Medieval courts sometimes ordered the drowning of condemned prisoners.

   The chronicle describes the drowning of captives thrown bound into the harbor.

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