"drown the miller" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Originally drown the miller's thumb, meaning to go over the specified mark.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drowns the miller",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drowning the miller",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drowned the miller",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drowned the miller",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "drown the miller (third-person singular simple present drowns the miller, present participle drowning the miller, simple past and past participle drowned the miller)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1821, The Economist, page 241:",
          "text": "[…] I tell my Bowl Friends, that our ministers have spoilt the punch. Sometimes they give us too much spirit, as when they display a vigour beyond the law; and sometimes, as we say, they drown the Miller, and make sad insipid stuff of it; again they sting our throats with acid; but it is not once in a century that we have cause to complain of an excess of sugar.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put too much water in something; overdilute."
      ],
      "id": "en-drown_the_miller-en-verb-Lj-cHvYQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "water",
          "water"
        ],
        [
          "overdilute",
          "overdilute"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete, idiomatic, slang) To put too much water in something; overdilute."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "obsolete",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drown the miller"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Originally drown the miller's thumb, meaning to go over the specified mark.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drowns the miller",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drowning the miller",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drowned the miller",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drowned the miller",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "drown the miller (third-person singular simple present drowns the miller, present participle drowning the miller, simple past and past participle drowned the miller)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1821, The Economist, page 241:",
          "text": "[…] I tell my Bowl Friends, that our ministers have spoilt the punch. Sometimes they give us too much spirit, as when they display a vigour beyond the law; and sometimes, as we say, they drown the Miller, and make sad insipid stuff of it; again they sting our throats with acid; but it is not once in a century that we have cause to complain of an excess of sugar.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To put too much water in something; overdilute."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "water",
          "water"
        ],
        [
          "overdilute",
          "overdilute"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete, idiomatic, slang) To put too much water in something; overdilute."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "obsolete",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drown the miller"
}