Drown your sorrows
Meaning
To attempt to forget or alleviate one's unhappiness or problems by drinking alcohol.
Origin
The idea of using alcohol to escape emotional pain is an ancient one, deeply woven into human history and depicted in cultures worldwide. The phrase 'drown your sorrows' vividly captures this practice, likening the act of drinking to submerging or overwhelming one's grief, troubles, or unhappiness in a flood of liquor, as if the liquid itself could extinguish or wash away the pain. While the exact moment of its coinage is elusive, the metaphor appears in various forms in literature for centuries, solidifying into this precise idiom by the 19th century, offering a poignant and often melancholic image of a common coping mechanism.
Examples
- After receiving the bad news, he decided to head to the bar to drown his sorrows.
- She warned her friend that while it might feel good temporarily, trying to drown your sorrows rarely solves anything.