Adjacent Words

Drone definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DRONE, n. [G., to tinkle, to shake, to tingle.]
1. The male of the honey bee. It is smaller than the queen bee, but larger than the working bee. The drones make no honey, but after living a few weeks, they are killed or driven from the hive. Hence,
2. An idler; a sluggard; one who earns nothing by industry.
3. A humming or low sound, or the instrument of humming.
4. The largest tube of the bag-pipe, which emits a continued deep note.
DRONE, v.i.
1. To live in idleness; as a droning king.
2. To give a low, heavy, dull sound; as the cymbals droning sound.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: stingless male bee in a colony of social bees (especially honeybees) whose sole function is to mate with the queen
2: an unchanging intonation [syn: monotone, drone, droning]
3: someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind [syn: dawdler, drone, laggard, lagger, trailer, poke]
4: an aircraft without a pilot that is operated by remote control [syn: drone, pilotless aircraft, radio- controlled aircraft]
5: a pipe of the bagpipe that is tuned to produce a single continuous tone [syn: drone, drone pipe, bourdon] v
1: make a monotonous low dull sound; "The harmonium was droning on"
2: talk in a monotonous voice [syn: drone, drone on]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English dr?n; akin to Old High German treno drone, Greek thr?nos dirge Date: before 12th century 1. the male of a bee (as the honeybee) that has no sting and gathers no honey 2. one that lives on the labors of others ; parasite 3. an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control 4. a. drudge 1 b. drudge 2 II. verb (droned; droning) Date: circa 1520 intransitive verb 1. a. to make a sustained deep murmuring, humming, or buzzing sound <droning bees> b. to talk in a persistently dull or monotonous tone <droning on and on about his health> 2. to pass, proceed, or act in a dull, drowsy, or indifferent manner <the afternoon droned on> transitive verb 1. to utter or pronounce with a drone 2. to pass or spend in dull or monotonous activity or in idleness • droner noun • droningly adverb III. noun Date: circa 1520 1. a deep sustained or monotonous sound ; hum 2. an instrument or part of an instrument (as one of the fixed-pitch pipes of a bagpipe) that sounds a continuous unvarying tone 3. pedal point

U.S. Military Dictionary

A land, sea, or air vehicle that is remotely or automatically controlled. See also remotely piloted vehicle; unmanned aerial vehicle. (JP 4-01.5)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a non-working male of the honey-bee, whose sole function is to mate with fertile females. 2 an idler. 3 a deep humming sound. 4 a monotonous speech or speaker. 5 a a pipe, esp. of a bagpipe, sounding a continuous note of fixed low pitch. b the note emitted by this. 6 a remote-controlled pilotless aircraft or missile. --v. 1 intr. make a deep humming sound. 2 intr. & tr. speak or utter monotonously. 3 a intr. be idle. b tr. (often foll. by away) idle away (one's time etc.). Etymology: OE dran, dræn prob. f. WG

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Drone Drone, n. [OE. drane a dronebee, AS. dr[=a]n; akin to OS. dr[=a]n, OHG. treno, G. drohne, Dan. drone, cf. Gr. ? a kind of wasp, dial. Gr. ? drone. Prob. named fr. the droning sound. See Drone, v. i.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) The male of bees, esp. of the honeybee. It gathers no honey. See Honeybee. All with united force combine to drive The lazy drones from the laborious hive. --Dryden. 2. One who lives on the labors of others; a lazy, idle fellow; a sluggard. By living as a drone,to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society. -- Burton. 3. That which gives out a grave or monotonous tone or dull sound; as: (a) A drum. [Obs.] Halliwell. (b) The part of the bagpipe containing the two lowest tubes, which always sound the key note and the fifth. 4. A humming or deep murmuring sound. The monotonous drone of the wheel. --Longfellow. 5. (Mus.) A monotonous bass, as in a pastoral composition.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Drone Drone, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Droned; p. pr. & vb. n. Droning.] [Cf. (for sense 1) D. dreunen, G. dr["o]hnen, Icel. drynja to roar, drynr a roaring, Sw. dr["o]na to bellow, drone, Dan. dr["o]ne, Goth. drunjus sound, Gr. ? dirge, ? to cry aloud, Skr. dhran to sound. Cf. Drone, n.] 1. To utter or make a low, dull, monotonous, humming or murmuring sound. Where the beetle wheels his droning flight. --T. Gray. 2. To love in idleness; to do nothing. ``Race of droning kings.'' --Dryden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(drones, droning, droned) 1. If something drones, it makes a low, continuous, dull noise. Above him an invisible plane droned through the night sky. ...a virtually non-stop droning noise in the background. VERB: V, V-ing • Drone is also a noun. ...the constant drone of the motorways. N-SING: usu N of n • droning ...the droning of a plane far overhead. N-SING: usu N of n 2. If you say that someone drones, you mean that they keep talking about something in a boring way. Chambers' voice droned, maddening as an insect around his head... VERB: V [disapproval] • Drone is also a noun. The minister's voice was a relentless drone. N-SING • Drone on means the same as drone. Aunt Maimie's voice droned on... Daniel just drones on about American policy. PHRASAL VERB: V P, V P about n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Male honey-bee. 2. Idler, sluggard, lounger, idle fellow, lazy fellow, do-nothing, good-for-nothing. 3. Humming, humming noise. 4. Droning-pipe (in bagpipe), drone-pipe. II. v. n. 1. Lounge, dawdle, idle, waste time in trifles, live in idleness. 2. Make a dull humming sound, hum. III. v. a. Read monotonously.

Moby Thesaurus

Indian file, accompaniment, alliteration, alto, array, articulation, assonance, bagpipe, bagpipes, bank, baritone, bass, basso continuo, basso ostinato, bassus, bee, beggar, birr, blubber, bombilate, bombinate, boom, bourdon, bum, bumble, bumblebee, bummer, burden, burr, buzz, cadger, canto, cantus, cantus figuratus, cantus planus, catena, catenation, chain, chain reaction, chaining, chanter, chest voice, chime, clockwork regularity, coloratura, concatenation, connection, consecution, constancy, continue the same, continuo, continuum, contralto, cornemuse, coupon clippers, course, cycle, daily round, dawdle, dawdler, descant, descent, dingdong, doodlesack, drag along, drag on, drone bass, droning, endless belt, endless round, even pace, even tenor, falsetto, figured bass, file, filiation, foot-dragger, freeloader, gabble, gamut, gibber, gibbering, goldbrick, goof-off, gradation, ground bass, harping, head voice, honeybee, hornet, hum, humdrum, idle rich, invariability, jabber, jibber, jingle, jingle-jangle, laggard, lallygag, laze, leisure class, lie-abed, line, lineage, lingerer, loaf, loiter, loiterer, loll, lounge, lounge lizard, lumpen proletariat, maunder, maundering, mendicant, monologue, monotone, monotonousness, monotony, moocher, mouth, mouthing, mumble, mumbling, murmur, murmuring, musette, mutter, muttering, near rhyme, nexus, nonworker, orderliness, panhandler, parasite, part, pendulum, periodicity, persist, pipes, pitter-patter, plain chant, plain song, plenum, plodder, powder train, prevail, prick song, procrastinator, progression, purr, queen, queen bee, queue, range, rank, recurrence, regularity, rentiers, repeated sounds, repetitiousness, repetitiveness, reticulation, rhyme, rotation, round, routine, row, run, run through, sameliness, sameness, scale, sequence, series, single file, singsong, slant rhyme, sleepyhead, slow goer, slow-foot, slowbelly, slowpoke, slug, sluggard, smoothness, snail, sob, soprano, sordellina, speak incoherently, spectrum, spiv, splutter, sponger, sputter, stale repetition, stick-in-the-mud, string, strum, succession, susurrate, susurration, swath, tedium, tenor, the unemployable, the unemployed, thorough bass, thread, thrum, tier, tortoise, train, treadmill, treble, trot, undersong, undeviation, undifferentiation, union pipes, unnecessary repetition, unvariation, voce, voce di petto, voce di testa, voice, voice part, wasp, whir, whisper, whispering, whiz, windrow, worker, yellow jacket