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Engulf vs Drown - What's the difference?

engulf | drown |

In lang=en terms the difference between engulf and drown

is that engulf is to surround; to cover while drown is to lose, make hard to find or unnoticeable in an abundant mass.

As verbs the difference between engulf and drown

is that engulf is to overwhelm while drown is to be suffocated in water or other fluid; to perish by such suffocation.

engulf

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To overwhelm.
  • Desperation engulfed her after her daughter's death.
  • * 2013 June 18, , " Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):
  • Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities.
  • To surround; to cover.
  • Only Noah and his family survived when the Flood engulfed earth.

    drown

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be suffocated in water or other fluid; to perish by such suffocation.
  • To deprive of life by immersion in water or other liquid.
  • To overwhelm in water; to submerge; to inundate.
  • To overpower; to overcome; to extinguish; — said especially of sound; usually in the form "to drown out".
  • * Sir J. Davies
  • most men being in sensual pleasures drowned
  • * Addison
  • My private voice is drowned amid the senate.
  • To lose, make hard to find or unnoticeable in an abundant mass.
  • ''The CIA gathers so much information that the actual answers it should seek are often drowned in the incessant flood of reports, recordings, satellite images etc.

    Derived terms

    * drowned * drowner * drowning * drown one's sorrows * drown out

    Synonyms

    * (overwhelm) flood

    References