drone
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Middle English drone, from Old English drān (“male bee”), from Proto-Germanic *drēnaz (“an insect, drone”), from Proto-Indo-European *dhrēn- (“bee, drone, hornet”). Cognate with German Drohne, dialectal German Dräne and Swedish drönare.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
drone (plural drones)
- A male bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilise the queen.
- (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.
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 117:
- A remotely controlled aircraft.
- 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.
- 1908: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
- One who performs menial or tedious work; a drudge.
- One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.
- A genre of music similar to that of noise.
[edit] Translations
male bee
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unmanned aircraft
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hum or buzz
drudge
fixed-pitch pipe in bagpipe
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
[edit] See also
[edit] Verb
drone (third-person singular simple present drones, present participle droning, simple past and past participle droned)
[edit] Translations
produce a low-pitched hum or buzz
speak in a monotone way
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[edit] Anagrams
[edit] Italian
[edit] Noun
drone m. inv.
- drone (unmanned aircraft)
