Quranic root
غرق
gh · r · q
The root centers on reaching an extreme or becoming fully immersed in something, concretely sinking into water.
From sinking or drowning, the lexical field extends to complete inclusion, being overwhelmed, vehement exertion, overflowing or filling, and figurative immersion in burdens or favors.
- Maqāyīs · row 3401
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 23
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَغْرَقَ
ʾaghraqa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 17 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To cause someone or something to sink in water; to drown.
Used transitively, with active, passive, and imperfect forms in the Quran; the result is submersion or drowning in water.
- Lane · entry 29151
- Mufradāt · row 1046
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:50word 6
“and We drowned”
Quran 17:69word 13
“and drown you”
Quran 71:25word 3
“they were drowned”
غَرَقٌ
gharaqun
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Sinking in water; drowning.
In the Quranic construction in which drowning overtakes a person, referring to the state or event of submersion.
- Lane · entry 29148
- Mufradāt · row 1046
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:90word 13
“the drowning”
غَرْقٌ
gharqun
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
With extreme force; vehemently.
In 79:1, it describes the vehement pulling out of souls, with غَرْقًا functioning in place of the verbal noun of أَغْرَقَ.
- Lane · entry 29151
Selected Quran examples
Quran 79:1word 2
“violently”
مُغْرَقٌ
mughraqun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Drowned; caused to sink in water.
A passive participle used substantivally for those who have been or are to be drowned.
- Lane · entry 29151
- Mufradāt · row 1046
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:43word 23
“the drowned”
Quran 23:27word 32
“(are) the ones to be drowned”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:50وَأَغْرَقْنَآand We drowned
- 7:64وَأَغْرَقْنَاAnd We drowned
- 7:136فَأَغْرَقْنَـٰهُمْand We drowned them
- 8:54وَأَغْرَقْنَآand We drowned
- 10:73وَأَغْرَقْنَاand We drowned
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 37 Classical meanings
غَرِقَ
To sink in water; to drown.
The primary Form I use is described as sinking under water, with death occurring in the fullest description.
- Lane · entry 29148
غَرِقَ
To go down and disappear in lands or tracts of land.
Used with فِي البِلَادِ.
- Lane · entry 29148
غَرِقَ
To take a draught of milk or another drink.
The verb is used with the noun غُرْقَةٌ for the draught taken.
- Lane · entry 29148
غَرِقَ
To be or become free from want or need.
- Lane · entry 29148
غَرَقٌ
Figurative immersion or being overwhelmed in affliction or in another's favor.
This is a metaphorical extension of sinking in water, as in being immersed in hardship or in someone's beneficence.
- Mufradāt · row 1046
غَرَّقَ
To kill by drowning; by extension, to kill.
The specialized account concerns a newborn drowned in birth fluid or killed when fluid or mucus enters the air passages.
- Lane · entry 29149
غَرَّقَ
To ornament with silver.
Applied especially to a bridle or the scabbard of a sword.
- Lane · entry 29149
غَرَّقَ
To remove the غِرْقِئ, the inner covering of an egg.
Used with the egg as its object.
- Lane · entry 29149
غَارَقَ
To draw near or approach.
Used in constructions such as غَارَقَنِي كَذَا, and figuratively of death becoming near.
- Lane · entry 29150
غَارَقَ
To become obligatory or inevitable, said of an onslaught or event.
A specialized figurative use applied to an impending occurrence.
- Lane · entry 29150
أَغْرَقَ
To annul or destroy one's good works through acts of disobedience.
A figurative use of causing something to sink or be lost.
- Lane · entry 29151
أَغْرَقَ
To be overrun and overcome by people or beasts multiplying against one.
The construction is used with people or beasts as the force overcoming someone.
- Lane · entry 29151
أَغْرَقَ
To outstrip another in sprightliness or speed.
Attested in the description of a horse outstripping a fox.
- Lane · entry 29151
أَغْرَقَ
To drive a spear so deeply that the part entering its iron head disappears into the person pierced.
A figurative extension describing extreme penetration caused by force and speed.
- Lane · entry 29151
أَغْرَقَ
To fill a cup.
Used with a cup or drinking vessel as object.
- Lane · entry 29151
أَغْرَقَ
To draw a bow or arrow to the utmost extent; hence to exceed the usual bounds or act immoderately.
The bow construction refers to an exceptionally forceful draw; the extended use applies to speech, conduct, or another matter.
- Lane · entry 29151
اِغْتَرَقَ
To mix among competitors and then outstrip them; figuratively, to overcome an opponent in dispute.
Used of a horse among other horses and of prevailing in an altercation or litigation.
- Lane · entry 29152
اِغْتَرَقَ
To take up the whole of a breast-girth or belly-girth.
Applied to a large-bellied camel whose body makes the girth too narrow.
- Lane · entry 29152
اِغْتَرَقَ
To take in the whole breath with a vehement inhalation.
Used with النَّفَسَ as object.
- Lane · entry 29152
اِغْتَرَقَ
To engross or occupy the gaze completely.
The expression describes beauty that diverts observers from looking at anything else.
- Lane · entry 29152
اِسْتَغْرَقَ
To take in, comprise, include, or occupy altogether and wholly.
Includes the grammatical use of universal inclusion of a genus.
- Lane · entry 29153
اِسْتَغْرَقَ
To exceed the usual degree in laughing; to laugh immoderately.
Used with laughter or another activity in which a person goes beyond the normal measure.
- Lane · entry 29153
اِغْرَوْرَقَتْ
For the eyes to fill with tears or shed tears.
One reported nuance is that the eyes fill with tears without overflowing; the lexical image is of eyes as though drowned in tears.
- Lane · entry 29154
غَرِقٌ
Submerged in water or overcome by water without having died.
Some authorities distinguish this state from غَرِيقٌ, which denotes death by drowning; other reports distinguish being overcome before sinking from having sunk.
- Lane · entry 29156
غَرِيقٌ
Dead by sinking in water; drowned.
A participial designation for one who has died through submersion; authorities also report variation in the distribution of غَرِقٌ and غَرِيقٌ.
- Lane · entry 29156
- Lane · entry 29159
دُعَاءُ الغَرِقِ
The desperate, sincere prayer of one on the brink of destruction.
A conventional expression likening urgency and sincerity in prayer to that of a drowning person.
- Lane · entry 29156
غَرِقًا
To go to the utmost degree in drinking wine.
A figurative use describing extreme immersion in wine-drinking.
- Lane · entry 29156
غَرِقَةٌ
Land in the utmost state of irrigation.
An adjective for land saturated or exceptionally well supplied with water.
- Lane · entry 29156
غَرِقٌ
Deeply in debt or overwhelmed by trials.
A figurative description of a person submerged under financial or other burdens.
- Lane · entry 29156
غَرِقُ الصَّوْتِ
Frightened so that one's voice is stopped short.
Used in the expression إِنَّهُ لَغَرِقُ الصَّوْتِ.
- Lane · entry 29156
غُرْقَةٌ
A single draught or a small quantity of milk or another beverage.
The plural is غُرَقٌ; the sources especially associate the term with milk.
- Lane · entry 29157
غَرِيقٌ
Overwhelmed by another's favors.
Used in the expression أَنَا غَرِيقُ أَيَادِيكَ, literally likening favors to a flood in which one is drowned.
- Lane · entry 29159
غِرْيَاقٌ
A reported name for a certain bird.
The attestation is explicitly described as not established.
- Lane · entry 29160
غَارِيقُونٌ
A medicinal substance, also called أَغَارِيقُونٌ, identified with an ancient Greek drug or the root of a plant.
Reported as an antidote and medicinal attenuant; the term is a borrowed technical name.
- Lane · entry 29162
مُغْرَقٌ
A she-camel that casts her young and does not incline toward or care for it.
A specialized description of a she-camel after casting her young, with associated refusal of milking.
- Lane · entry 29164
مُغَرَّقٌ
Ornamented with silver.
Applied to a bridle or the scabbard of a sword.
- Lane · entry 29165
مُغَارِقٌ
Obligatory, in the expression رمضانُ مُغَارِقٌ.
A conventional lexical expression concerning observance of Ramadan.
- Lane · entry 29167
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Authorities differ in how غَرِقٌ and غَرِيقٌ distribute the meanings 'submerged' and 'dead by drowning'; both reported distinctions are preserved.
The reported bird-name غِرْيَاقٌ is explicitly of uncertain attestation.
The figurative meanings involving affliction and favors are broader Classical Arabic extensions and are not assigned to the Quranic occurrence of غَرَقٌ itself.