DRONE • DICTIONARY ONE.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."

See images of 'Drone'

Etymology of 'Drone'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Drone" Quotes from Famous Books

... resting against Luigi's; weariness had overcome him, and for the past five minutes he had been peacefully sleeping. The old ladies had dropped their voices to a lulling drone, to help him to steal the rest his brother wouldn't take him up-stairs to get. Luigi listened a moment to Angelo's regular breathing, then said ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... so-called Indian Summer. It was the season of threshing, and all day long to the drowse of the air was added, near and afar, all-pervading through the stillness, the sleepy hum of the separator. Typical voice of the prairie was that busy drone, penetrating to the ears as the ubiquitous odor of the buffalo grass to the nostril, again bearing resemblance in that, once heard, memory would reproduce the sound until ...

— A Breath of Prairie and other stories • Will Lillibridge

... to one who has come into a knowledge of Truth. Drones have no place in the Divine Plan. It is not only essential but mandatory, that each one do his part for the common good. The non-producing rich man is as much a drone as is the vagabond who neither toils nor spins. The Biblical test concerning the difficulty of the rich man getting into Heaven means that it is impossible for a drone or parasite to ...

— The Planet Mars and its Inhabitants - A Psychic Revelation • Eros Urides and J. L. Kennon

... mobs to banishment, See Aristides leave the land he saved: Wisdom his fault and justice his offense. See Caesar crowned a god and Tully slain; See Paris red with riot and noble blood, A king beheaded and a monster throned,— King Drone, flat fool that weather-cocked all winds, Gulped gall and vinegar and smacked it wine, Wig-wagged his way from gilded Oeil de Boeuf Through mob and maelstrom to the guillotine. Chateaus up-blazing torch the doom of France, While human wolves howl ruin round their walls. Contention hisses ...

— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon

... did the Tonneraire thus prove herself a crack ship. A crack ship with a crack crew and officers, remember; for the best of ships is but a drone unless well managed. Not even a drone, indeed; for a drone is a most duty-full bee, and a most respectable member of the apiarian republic. There is a vast deal of very indifferent music in the very best of fiddles, and I feel quite convinced that had some less active officer commanded even the Tonneraire, ...

— As We Sweep Through The Deep • Gordon Stables

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