drown out — overpower a sound
phrasal verbC1IELTS 7+neutraloccasional
to make another sound impossible to hear by being much louder than it
Say it like a native
Textbook The traffic noise made it impossible to hear the music.
Native The traffic drowned out the music.
'Drown out' is the precise verb for one sound burying another; the long paraphrase is clumsy.
Pattern: drown out something/someone | be drowned out (by something)
In use
- The noise from the construction site drowned out the speaker's voice completely.communication
- In my opinion, it's difficult to concentrate in open-plan offices because conversations and phone calls often drown out your own thoughts.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ The crowd drowned his voice out down.
✓ The crowd drowned out his voice. / drowned his voice out.
'Drown out' is complete — don't add 'down'.
Common collocations
drown out + sound— the music, his voice, the noise, the announcement
Don't confuse it
This sense is different from the literal meaning of 'drown' (to die in water). Here, 'drown out' is always about sounds, not about water or physical drowning.