English
drone
see also: Drone
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /dɹəʊn/
  • (America) IPA: /dɹoʊn/
Noun

drone (plural drones)

  1. A male ant, bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen bee.
    • All with united force combine to drive / The lazy drones from the laborious hive.
  2. (now rare) Someone who does not work; a lazy person, an idler.
    • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene v:
      SHYLOCK:
      The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder,
      Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
      More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me;
      Therefore I part with him; and part with him
      To one what I would have him help to waste
      His borrowed purse. […]
    • 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.
    • By living as a drone, to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society.
  3. One who performs menial or tedious work.
    Synonyms: drudge
  4. (colloquial, aviation) A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
    Synonyms: UAV, UAS
    hypo en
    Several images of the compound were obtained via a drone overflight.
    One team member launched a camera drone over the Third Pole.
Translations Translations
  • French: drone
  • German: Drohne
  • Italian: drone
  • Portuguese: veículo aéreo não tripulado, drone
  • Russian: беспило́тный лета́тельный аппара́т
  • Spanish: dron
Verb

drone (drones, present participle droning; past and past participle droned)

  1. (transitive, colloquial) To kill with a missile fired by unmanned aircraft.
Verb

drone (drones, present participle droning; past and past participle droned)

  1. To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz.
  2. To speak in a monotone way.
Translations
  • Italian: parlare monotonamente
  • Portuguese: falar monotonamente
Noun

drone (plural drones)

  1. A low-pitched hum or buzz.
    • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
      He chanted as he flew and the car responded with sonorous drone.
  2. (musical instrument) One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.
  3. (music genre, uncountable) A genre of music that uses repeated lengthy droning sounds.
  4. A humming or deep murmuring sound.
    • The monotonous drone of the wheel.
Translations Translations Translations
  • German: Basspfeife
Translations
Drone
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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