drone

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɹəʊn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /dɹoʊn/
• Rhymes: -əʊn

From Middle English drone, from Old English drān, drǣn (“male bee, drone”), from Proto-Germanic *drēniz, *drēnuz, *drenô (“an insect, drone”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrēn- (“bee, drone, hornet”). Cognate with Dutch drone (“male bee or wasp”), Low German drone (“drone”), German Drohne, dialectal German Dräne, Trehne, Trene (“drone”), Danish drone (“drone”), Swedish drönje, drönare (“drone”).

In sense “unmanned aircraft”, due to early military UAVs dumbly flying on preset paths.[1] The verb sense derives from this sense.

drone (plural drones)

1. A male ant, bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen bee.
   • Dryden

     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.

   • Burton

     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; a drudge.
4. A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
   • 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist‎, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly):

     A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.

   • 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:

     In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

   Several images of the compound were obtained via a drone overflight.

   One team member launched a camera drone over the Third Pole.

• In sense “unmanned aircraft”, primarily used informally of military aircraft or consumer radio controlled quadcopters, without precise definition.[1]

• UAV

drone (third-person singular simple present drones, present participle droning, simple past and past participle droned)

1. To kill with a missile fired by unmanned aircraft.
   • 2014, Colin Campbell, “Bill Ayers To Obama: 'Stop Droning People'”, in Business Insider‎:

     "I have a lot of advice for him," Ayers said in the interview, aired Tuesday night. "I want him to stop droning people. I want him to close Guantanamo. I want universal healthcare. Don't you think we deserve universal healthcare? Seriously."

   • 2016, David Moye, “Trevor Noah: If Trump Is Elected, He’ll Wage ‘Warsuits’”, in Huffington Post‎:

     “He won’t be waging wars all the world ― he’ll be waging ‘warsuits,’” Noah said. “Droning people with subpoenas all over the globe.”

   • 2018, David Weigel, “The new ‘Dr. No’: Rep. Justin Amash, marooned in Congress”, in Washington Post‎:

     “Are we still droning people? Yeah,” he said. “Are we still running covert operations that weren’t authorized by Congress? Yeah. Is the government still spying on Americans without warrants? Without due process. Yeah. When some libertarians talk about the great accomplishments we’re seeing on foreign policy, I don’t know what they’re talking about. Reaching out to these guys is one thing, but you have to move down the court. [Trump] actually made it harder for us to have a good relationship with Russia.”

From Middle English drounen (“to roar, bellow”), ultimately perhaps from Proto-Germanic *drunjaną (“to drone, roar, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“to roar, hum, drone”). Cognate with Scots drune (“to drone, moan, complain”), Dutch dreunen (“to drone, boom, thud”), Low German drönen (“to drone, buzz, hum”), German dröhnen (“to roar, boom, rumble”), Danish drøne (“to roar, boom, peel out”), Swedish dröna (“to low, bellow, roar”), Icelandic drynja (“to roar”).

drone (third-person singular simple present drones, present participle droning, simple past and past participle droned)

1. To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz.
2. To speak in a monotone way.

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. (music) One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.
3. (music, uncountable) A genre of music that uses repeated lengthy droning sounds.
4. A humming or deep murmuring sound.
   • Longfellow

     The monotonous drone of the wheel.

• Doner, Roden, doner, nerdo, orned, redon, renod, ronde

From Middle Dutch drone (“bee drone”). Doublette with drone (“unmanned aircraft”), which was borrowed from English.

drone m (plural dronen, diminutive droontje n)

1. (archaic) a male bee or wasp; a drone

• dar

From English drone (“aircraft drone”). Doublette with drone (“male bee”), which descended from Middle Dutch.

drone m (plural drones, diminutive droontje n)

1. a remotely controlled aircraft; a drone

drone m (plural drones)

1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

From English drone

drone m (invariable)

1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

• derno, dreno, drenò, rendo, ronde

From Middle Low German drone (sense 1), and English drone (sense 2).

drone m (definite singular dronen, indefinite plural droner, definite plural dronene)

1. a drone (male bee)
2. a drone (radio-controlled pilotless aircraft)

• dronefly (aircraft)

• “drone” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Middle Low German drone (sense 1), and English drone (sense 2).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdruːnə/ (example of pronunciation)

drone m (definite singular dronen, indefinite plural dronar, definite plural dronane)

1. drone (male bee)
2. drone (unmanned aircraft)

• (male bee): hannbie
• (aircraft): dronefly

• “drone” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From English drone

drone m (plural drones)

1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

• dron

From English drone

drone m (plural drones)

1. drone