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Glite Dictionary
to drown one's sorrows

to drown one's sorrows

11 7.5
Try to forget sad feelings by eating or drinking alcohol
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : ahogar las penas
  • Believe me, my friend, I too have spent many nights trying to drown my sorrows in guacamole.
  • go drown my sorrows
  • trying to drown your sorrows
  • drowned our sorrows in a bottle

Examples

  • We go back to the RV and you drown your sorrows with me and Jack Daniels until the game is done.

    Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)

  • I went to Baton Rouge to watch the LSU-Alabama game and presumably am still drowning my sorrows based on how things went last night.

    Blog text (21)

  • You want to help me drown my sorrows?

    What If (2013)

  • Do you drink to drown your sorrows?

    Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

  • Want to go drown our sorrows?

    Fiction book (1990)

  • We decided to drown our sorrows at her house for the night, and she had a bit too much to drink.

    Blog text (30)

  • I'm trying to drown my sorrows.

    Follow the Fleet (1936)

  • Well, I'm gonna drown my sorrows in some hot cocoa.

    The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

  • So, with nowhere left to go, Tim and Eric headed to their favorite nightclub, Circus Disco, to drown their sorrows.

    Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012)

  • After losing his job, he went to the pub to drown his sorrows with a few drinks.

Synonyms

to drown
vsto drown one's sorrows
  • Informal
26 6.5

Try to get rid of a bad feeling by using something else, for example drinking

is specifically about using food or drink to forget unhappiness
to wash down
vsto drown one's sorrows
15 4.4

To swallow food with a drink or ease a bad feeling by drinking

focuses on using food or drink to try to forget sadness
to find solace
vsto drown one's sorrows
12 5.2

To feel comfort when you are sad or upset

narrows this to seeking comfort specifically by eating or drinking to forget
to eat one's feelings
vsto drown one's sorrows
  • Informal
1 8.6

To eat food to feel better when you are sad or stressed

also includes drinking and often aims to forget unhappiness rather than only cope

Antonyms

embrace
20 3.4

A warm, willing acceptance of someone or an idea

to face the truth
16 3.7

Accept real facts even when they are painful

How Numb

to unfeel
1 9.9
to drown one's sorrows
  • Informal
11 7.5
to forget
∞ 1.8
to distract
513 2.1

Surface Forms

drown one's sorrows infinitive
drowned one's sorrows past
drowned one's sorrows past participle
drowning one's sorrows present participle
drowns one's sorrows third person singular

Morphology

drown + one + sorrow

The verb 'drown' plus the noun 'sorrows' creates a clear metaphor: to overwhelm or 'sink' one's sadness (typically by drinking). This mapping is conceptually inferable and present in many other languages, but it relies on a metaphorical extension of 'drown' rather than strict compositionality, so it is not fully transparent to learners without some exposure.

Etymology

Drown one's sorrows comes from the picture of putting your sorrows into a glass so you can drown them by drinking. So, the phrase means 'to try to forget' sadness by eating or drinking, often with alcohol.