The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Drown \Drown\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Drowned; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Drowning.] [OE. drunen, drounen, earlier drunknen,
   druncnien, AS. druncnian to be drowned, sink, become drunk,
   fr. druncen drunken. See Drunken, Drink.]
   To be suffocated in water or other fluid; to perish in water.
   [1913 Webster]

         Methought, what pain it was to drown.    --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Drown \Drown\, v. t.
   1. To overwhelm in water; to submerge; to inundate. "They
      drown the land." --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To deprive of life by immersion in water or other liquid.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To overpower; to overcome; to extinguish; -- said
      especially of sound.
      [1913 Webster]

            Most men being in sensual pleasures drowned. --Sir
                                                  J. Davies.
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            My private voice is drowned amid the senate.
                                                  --Addison.
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   To drown up, to swallow up. [Obs.] --Holland.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

drown
    v 1: cover completely or make imperceptible; "I was drowned in
         work"; "The noise drowned out her speech" [syn: submerge,
         drown, overwhelm]
    2: get rid of as if by submerging; "She drowned her trouble in
       alcohol"
    3: die from being submerged in water, getting water into the
       lungs, and asphyxiating; "The child drowned in the lake"
    4: kill by submerging in water; "He drowned the kittens"
    5: be covered with or submerged in a liquid; "the meat was
       swimming in a fatty gravy" [syn: swim, drown]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

93 Moby Thesaurus words for "drown":
   OD, asphyxiate, baptize, be clobbered, be felled, be killed,
   be poleaxed, be staggered, be stricken, bottle up, burke, bury,
   censor, choke, choke off, clamp down on, come to grief, cork,
   cork up, crack down on, crush, damp down, deluge, dip, douse,
   drench, duck, dunk, engulf, extinguish, famish, float, flood,
   flow on, founder, gag, garrote, have a mishap, hold down, immerge,
   immerse, inundate, jump on, keep down, keep under, kill,
   knock over, merge, muzzle, overcome, overflow, overpower,
   overwhelm, plunge in water, pour on, pour water on, prostrate,
   put down, quash, quell, quench, rain, repress, run aground,
   shut down on, silence, sink, sit down on, sit on, sluice, smash,
   smother, soak, sop, souse, squash, squelch, stanch, starve, stifle,
   stop the breath, strangle, stultify, subdue, submerge, submerse,
   suffer a misfortune, suffocate, suppress, swamp, throttle, wet,
   whelm



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Drown
   (Ex. 15:4; Amos 8:8; Heb. 11:29). Drowning was a mode of capital
   punishment in use among the Syrians, and was known to the Jews
   in the time of our Lord. To this he alludes in Matt. 18:6.