Drone

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /drəʊn/
• Rhymes: -əʊn

From Middle English drone, from Old English drān, drǣn ("male bee, drone"), from Proto-Germanic *drēniz, *drēnuz, *drenô ("an insect, drone"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrēn- ("bee, drone, hornet"). Cognate with Dutch drone ("male bee or wasp"), Low German drone ("drone"), German Drohne, dialectal German Dräne, Trehne, Trene ("drone"), Danish drone ("drone"), Swedish drönje, drönare ("drone").

Full definition of drone

Noun

1. A male bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilise the queen (Drone (bee)).
• DrydenAll with united force combine to drive
  The lazy drones from the laborious hive.
2. (now rare) Someone who doesn't work; a lazy person, an idler.
• 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 117:he that gathereth not every day as much as I doe, the next day shall be set beyond the river, and be banished from the Fort as a drone, till he amend his conditions or starve.
• BurtonBy living as a drone, to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society.
3. A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, Unmanned aerial vehicle).
• 2012-12-01, An internet of airborne things, A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.
• 2013-06-07, Ed Pilkington, ‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told, In his submission to the UN, Christof Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
4. Strikes from drones take many innocent lives.

Hyponyms

• Predator drone
• Reaper drone

From Middle English drounen ("to roar, bellow"), ultimately perhaps from Proto-Germanic *drunjaną ("to drone, roar, make a sound"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- ("to roar, hum, drone"). Cognate with Scots drune ("to drone, moan, complain"), Dutch dreunen ("to drone, boom, thud"), Low German drönen ("to drone, buzz, hum"), German dröhnen ("to roar, boom, rumble"), Danish drøne ("to roar, boom, peel out"), Swedish dröna ("to low, bellow, roar"), Icelandic drynja ("to roar").

Verb

1. To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz.
2. To speak in a monotone way.

Noun

1. A low-pitched hum or buzz.
• 1908, Kenneth Grahame, He chanted as he flew and the car responded with sonorous drone.
2. One who performs menial or tedious work; a drudge.
3. One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.
4. A genre of music similar to that of noise.
5. A humming or deep murmuring sound.
• LongfellowThe monotonous drone of the wheel.

Anagrams

• doner, nerdo