drone

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“
Finally, this drone is the only thing that remains, a slow and distant rumble that subtly ends the piece.

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Definitions (32)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (12)

  1. noun A male bee, especially a honeybee, that is characteristically stingless, performs no work, and produces no honey. Its only function is to mate with the queen bee.
  2. noun An idle person who lives off others; a loafer.
  3. noun A person who does tedious or menial work; a drudge: "undervalued drones who labored in obscurity” (Caroline Bates).
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (11)

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Examples (50)

  • One of those things that you just saw flash before you was a Raven drone, a hand held tossed one. —  PW Singer on military robots and the future of war
  • One of the people I met with there was a news editor, and we're talking as a drone is flying above him. —  PW Singer on military robots and the future of war
  • The first was that of Chief Justice Stephen Sewall of Massachusetts, and the other was that of His Majesty George II, the Snuffy old drone from the German hive as he is described by the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." —  James Otis The Pre-Revolutionist
  • Then I turn and follow the drone, which is already gliding down the polished-wood corridor, leading me to my room. —  Aeon One
  • He looked back: the drone was almost on top of him. —  Eric Nylund - HALO 4 - Ghosts of Onyx (v1.0)
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

hum ·  whine ·  rumble ·  murmur ·  whir ·  robot ·  rattle ·  satellite ·  aircraft ·  vibration ·  chirp ·  throb

Used in the same contextWord Family

drone:   drones
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English drān.
  2. From drone1 (from the bee's humming sound).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. Altered, in conformation to drone, n., from * droun = Scots drune, low, murmur, from Middle English drounen (rare), roar or bellow (said of a dragon); not in Anglo-Saxon; = Middle Dutch dronen, dreunen, tremble, quaver, Dutch dreunen, make a trembling noise, = Middle Low German dronen, Low German drönen, later G. dröhnen, drönen, drone, hum, = Icelandic drynja, roar (cf. drynr, a roaring, drunur, a thundering), = Swedish dröna, low, bellow, drone, = Danish dröne, peal, rumble, boom (cf. drön, a boom). Cf. Gothic (Moesogothic) drunjus, a sound, voice; Greek θρῆνος, a dirge (see threne). Hence (remotely) drone.
  2. from drone, v.
  3. Early modern English also droane; from Middle English drone, drane, from Anglo-Saxon drān, also drœ¯n = Old Low German drān, Middle Low German drane, drone, Low German drone (later G. drohne, and prob. Danish drone = Icelandic drjōni, a drone; cf. Swedish drönare, a drone, literally ‘droner’); akin to Old High German treno, Middle High German trene, tren, German dial. (Sax., Austr.) trehne, trene, a drone. Cf. Lithuanian tranni, Greek (Lacon.) θρῶναξ, a drone, τενθρήνη, τενθρηδών a kind of wasp or bee, ἀνθρήνη, ἀνθρηδών, a hornet or wasp (see Anthrenus); all apparently ult. from the imitative root of drone, v.
  4. from drone, n.
 

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/droʊn/
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