[syn: drone, drone on]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Drone \Drone\, n. [OE. drane a dronebee, AS. dr[=a]n; akin to
OS. dr[=a]n, OHG. treno, G. drohne, Dan. drone, cf. Gr. ? a
kind of wasp, dial. Gr. ? drone. Prob. named fr. the droning
sound. See Drone, v. i.]
1. (Zool.) The male of bees, esp. of the honeybee. It gathers
no honey. See Honeybee.
[1913 Webster]
All with united force combine to drive
The lazy drones from the laborious hive. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
2. One who lives on the labors of others; a lazy, idle
fellow; a sluggard.
[1913 Webster]
By living as a drone,to be an unprofitable and
unworthy member of so noble and learned a society.
-- Burton.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
4. A humming or deep murmuring sound.
[1913 Webster]
The monotonous drone of the wheel. --Longfellow.
[1913 Webster]
5. (Mus.) A monotonous bass, as in a pastoral composition.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Drone \Drone\ (dr[=o]n), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Droned; p. pr. &
vb. n. Droning.] [Cf. (for sense 1) D. dreunen, G.
dr["o]hnen, Icel. drynja to roar, drynr a roaring, Sw.
dr["o]na to bellow, drone, Dan. dr["o]ne, Goth. drunjus
sound, Gr. ? dirge, ? to cry aloud, Skr. dhran to sound. Cf.
Drone, n.]
1. To utter or make a low, dull, monotonous, humming or
murmuring sound.
[1913 Webster]
Where the beetle wheels his droning flight. --T.
Gray.
[1913 Webster]
2. To love in idleness; to do nothing. "Race of droning
kings." --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
drone
n 1: stingless male bee in a colony of social bees (especially
honeybees) whose sole function is to mate with the queen
2: an unchanging intonation [syn: monotone, drone,
droning]
3: someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags
behind [syn: dawdler, drone, laggard, lagger,
trailer, poke]
4: an aircraft without a pilot that is operated by remote
control [syn: drone, pilotless aircraft, radio-
controlled aircraft]
5: a pipe of the bagpipe that is tuned to produce a single
continuous tone [syn: drone, drone pipe, bourdon]
v 1: make a monotonous low dull sound; "The harmonium was
droning on"
2: talk in a monotonous voice [syn: drone, drone on]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
237 Moby Thesaurus words for "drone":
Indian file, accompaniment, alliteration, alto, array,
articulation, assonance, bagpipe, bagpipes, bank, baritone, bass,
basso continuo, basso ostinato, bassus, bee, beggar, birr, blubber,
bombilate, bombinate, boom, bourdon, bum, bumble, bumblebee,
bummer, burden, burr, buzz, cadger, canto, cantus,
cantus figuratus, cantus planus, catena, catenation, chain,
chain reaction, chaining, chanter, chest voice, chime,
clockwork regularity, coloratura, concatenation, connection,
consecution, constancy, continue the same, continuo, continuum,
contralto, cornemuse, coupon clippers, course, cycle, daily round,
dawdle, dawdler, descant, descent, dingdong, doodlesack,
drag along, drag on, drone bass, droning, endless belt,
endless round, even pace, even tenor, falsetto, figured bass, file,
filiation, foot-dragger, freeloader, gabble, gamut, gibber,
gibbering, goldbrick, goof-off, gradation, ground bass, harping,
head voice, honeybee, hornet, hum, humdrum, idle rich,
invariability, jabber, jibber, jingle, jingle-jangle, laggard,
lallygag, laze, leisure class, lie-abed, line, lineage, lingerer,
loaf, loiter, loiterer, loll, lounge, lounge lizard,
lumpen proletariat, maunder, maundering, mendicant, monologue,
monotone, monotonousness, monotony, moocher, mouth, mouthing,
mumble, mumbling, murmur, murmuring, musette, mutter, muttering,
near rhyme, nexus, nonworker, orderliness, panhandler, parasite,
part, pendulum, periodicity, persist, pipes, pitter-patter,
plain chant, plain song, plenum, plodder, powder train, prevail,
prick song, procrastinator, progression, purr, queen, queen bee,
queue, range, rank, recurrence, regularity, rentiers,
repeated sounds, repetitiousness, repetitiveness, reticulation,
rhyme, rotation, round, routine, row, run, run through, sameliness,
sameness, scale, sequence, series, single file, singsong,
slant rhyme, sleepyhead, slow goer, slow-foot, slowbelly, slowpoke,
slug, sluggard, smoothness, snail, sob, soprano, sordellina,
speak incoherently, spectrum, spiv, splutter, sponger, sputter,
stale repetition, stick-in-the-mud, string, strum, succession,
susurrate, susurration, swath, tedium, tenor, the unemployable,
the unemployed, thorough bass, thread, thrum, tier, tortoise,
train, treadmill, treble, trot, undersong, undeviation,
undifferentiation, union pipes, unnecessary repetition,
unvariation, voce, voce di petto, voce di testa, voice, voice part,
wasp, whir, whisper, whispering, whiz, windrow, worker,
yellow jacket
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
drone
n.
Ignorant sales or customer service personnel in computer or electronics
superstores. Characterized by a lack of even superficial knowledge about
the products they sell, yet possessed of the conviction that they are more
competent than their hacker customers. Usage: ?That video board probably
sucks, it was recommended by a drone at Fry's? In the year 2000, their
natural habitats include Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, and CompUSA.