DRONE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Drone

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/droʊn/ Listen

noun

Drone n.

1.

(Zool.) 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."

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."

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."

5.

(Mus.) A monotonous bass, as in a pastoral composition.

verb

Drone v. i. (past & past part. droned; pres. part. droning)

1.

To utter or make a low, dull, monotonous, humming or murmuring sound. "Where the beetle wheels his droning flight."

2.

To love in idleness; to do nothing. "Race of droning kings."

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Etymology of 'Drone'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Drone" Quotes from Famous Books

... have not been a doer, a faiseur, as the French would say, I do not wish to represent myself as a mere idle drone during the long years of my quiet life. Nor did I stand quite alone in looking on a scholar's life—even when I was living in a garret au cinquieme—as a paradise on earth. Did not Emerson write, "The scholar is the man of the age"? Did not even Mazzini, who certainly was constantly up and ...

— My Autobiography - A Fragment • F. Max Mueller

... must have; for the Negroes are said to be gradually maddened by it; and white people have told me that its very monotony, if listened to long, is strangely exciting, like the monotony of a bagpipe drone, or of a drum. What more went on at the dance we could not see; and if we had tried, we should probably not have been allowed to see. The Negro is chary of admitting white men to his amusements; and no wonder. If a London ballroom were suddenly invaded by Phoebus, Ares, and Hermes, such as ...

— At Last • Charles Kingsley

... among double-reed instruments the various bagpipes, cornemuses, and musettes, which are shawm or oboe instruments with reservoirs of air, and furnished with drones inclosing single reeds. I shall have more to say about the drone in the third lecture. In restricting our attention to the Highland bagpipe, with which we are more or less familiar, it is surprising to find the peculiar scale of the chaunter, or finger pipe, in an old Arabic scale, still prevailing in Syria and Egypt. Dr. A.J. Ellis' ...

— Scientific American Supplement No. 819 - Volume XXXII, Number 819. Issue Date September 12, 1891 • Various

... while the engines were checked, turning at half speed for a number of revolutions, then ceasing as a bell rang. The only sound was the soughing gurgle of the water as it lapped along the steel plates, and the distant drone of the rapids. ...

— Peter the Brazen - A Mystery Story of Modern China • George F. Worts

... government on some primitive planet. Usually, they're caught pretty quickly. But sometimes they evade capture. And they can end up by exerting serious influence in cultural patterns. Some planets have been set back, and even destroyed as a result of drone activity. Although their motives are different, drones're just as bad and just as dangerous ...

— The Players • Everett B. Cole

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