drown out

present singular third person drowns out · participle present drowning out · participle past drowned out · past drowned out

1. idiomaticTo cover, obscure, or overwhelm by being louder or more intense than.

   He uses the music to drown out other noises around him.

   4 more examples

   The fire had burned through the night and seemed barely affected by the efforts to drown it out and almost as if it were simply bored of the festival it had created, the fire lessened at daybreak.

   2021, Michael Farris Smith, chapter 27, in Nick, New York; Boston; London: Little, Brown and Company, page 142

   Charlie Mulgrew could easily have been shown two yellow cards by a stricter referee and amid all the usual Anglo-Scottish pleasantries, the two sets of fans put an awful lot of effort into trying to drown out one another’s national anthems.

   2014 November 18, Daniel Taylor, “England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard”, in The Guardian

   Stop using your words as weapons / They're never gonna shoot me down / Stop, it's time that you learned a lesson / My love is gonna drown you out

   2022 November 10, Ava Max, Melanie Fontana, Michel Schulz, Ryan Tedder, Madison Love, Cirkut, “Weapons”, in Diamonds & Dancefloors, performed by Ava Max

   But Harry, in his civilian suit, was also a reminder of the schism between the traditional and the modern in the royal family that can’t be drowned out by pageantry.

   2023 May 6, James Poniewozik, “Charles III Was Crowned King. But Can He Ever Be the Star?”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: outdin