Library / English Dictionary

DRONE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stingless male bee in a colony of social bees (especially honeybees) whose sole function is to mate with the queen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("drone" is a kind of...):

bee (any of numerous hairy-bodied insects including social and solitary species)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A pipe of the bagpipe that is tuned to produce a single continuous tone

Synonyms:

bourdon; drone; drone pipe

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("drone" is a kind of...):

pipe (a tubular wind instrument)

Holonyms ("drone" is a part of...):

bagpipe (a tubular wind instrument; the player blows air into a bag and squeezes it out through the drone)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An aircraft without a pilot that is operated by remote control

Synonyms:

drone; pilotless aircraft; radio-controlled aircraft

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("drone" is a kind of...):

heavier-than-air craft (a non-buoyant aircraft that requires a source of power to hold it aloft and to propel it)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An unchanging intonation

Synonyms:

drone; droning; monotone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("drone" is a kind of...):

intonation; modulation; pitch contour (rise and fall of the voice pitch)

Derivation:

drone (talk in a monotonous voice)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind

Synonyms:

dawdler; drone; laggard; lagger; poke; trailer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("drone" is a kind of...):

bum; do-nothing; idler; layabout; loafer (person who does no work)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "drone"):

lingerer; loiterer (someone who lingers aimlessly in or about a place)

plodder; slowcoach; slowpoke; stick-in-the-mud (someone who moves slowly)

potterer; putterer (a person who putters about)

straggler; strayer (someone who strays or falls behind)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Talk in a monotonous voice

Synonyms:

drone; drone on

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "drone" is one way to...):

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue drone

Derivation:

drone; droning (an unchanging intonation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a monotonous low dull sound

Example:

The harmonium was droning on

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "drone" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

droning (an unchanging intonation)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I was reading that everlasting Belsham, and droning away as I always do, for Aunt soon drops off, and then I take out some nice book, and read like fury till she wakes up.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I remember, one morning, when Glumdalclitch had set me in a box upon a window, as she usually did in fair days to give me air (for I durst not venture to let the box be hung on a nail out of the window, as we do with cages in England), after I had lifted up one of my sashes, and sat down at my table to eat a piece of sweet cake for my breakfast, above twenty wasps, allured by the smell, came flying into the room, humming louder than the drones of as many bagpipes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

For an hour he droned away upon his violin, endeavouring to soothe his own ruffled spirits.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lost 52 sailed to the alternative probable location and deployed underwater drones to search the ocean floor using sonar.

(Lost 52 Project announces discovery of wrecked sub near Okinawa, Wikinews)

Their results point towards potential mechanisms for noise suppression in wind turbines, aircraft, multi-rotor drones and other machines.

(Owls' Wings Key to Beating Wind Turbine Noise, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

“David,” said Mr. Murdstone, “to the young this is a world for action; not for moping and droning in.” —“As you do,” added his sister.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At sight of his master's sudden departure, the varlet Watkin set off after him, with the pack-mule beside him, so that the four clattered away down the road together, until they swept round a curve and their babble was but a drone in the distance.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At dawn and at sunset the howler monkeys screamed together and the parrakeets broke into shrill chatter, but during the hot hours of the day only the full drone of insects, like the beat of a distant surf, filled the ear, while nothing moved amid the solemn vistas of stupendous trunks, fading away into the darkness which held us in.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Someone was singing, a dull, old, droning sailor's song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every verse, and seemingly no end to it at all but the patience of the singer.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The droning sound swelled louder upon our ears until it became one long, deep wail of distress.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)