drone

1 of 3

noun (1)

ˈdrōn 

plural drones

1

: a stingless male bee (as of the honeybee) that has the role of mating with the queen and does not gather nectar or pollen

At some point, usually around late spring or early summer in the Midwest, thousands of worker bees and drones—half or more of the colony's total population—may fly away with the old queen to find a new home.

—Jim Doherty and Terry Domico

2

: an uncrewed aircraft or vessel guided by remote control or onboard computers: such as

a

: a small remotely-operated rotorcraft usually with a mounted camera

We drifted past a man who was operating a quadcopter drone with a GoPro attached. It swooped over us and then receded upriver.

—Nick Paumgarten

Some particularly dramatic drone footage shows the lava field advancing on a neighborhood.

—Eric Mack

b

: an uncrewed military aircraft or vessel

Armed drones contribute to the illusion that wars can be won on the cheap.

—Sarah Kreps and Paul Lushenko

Designed and built in the UK, Taranis is one of the biggest military drones on the battlefield, with a wingspan of almost 12 metres.

—How It Works Magazine

… waterborne drones are already being deployed by the Navy's 5th Fleet in the waters off the Middle East.

—David Sharp

Boeing is modifying the retired Lockheed Martin-built F-16s into target drones …

—Flight International

The CIA has used pilotless drone planes, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to carry out attacks in countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

—Mark Thomas

If a two-year trial is successful, the Navy might consider developing drone ships for other tasks, such as deactivating unexploded mines.

—Kelsey Atherton and Sarah Fecht

As the U.S. slashes budgets, the lethality and cost-effectiveness of drone strikes will likely make them an even more attractive option.

—Carla Anne Robbins

The military is developing these technologies to defend against drone attacks.

—Iain Boyd

3

informal

a

: a person who is obliged to do menial work : drudge sense 1

b

: a person whose work is routine and boring : drudge sense 2

one of many office drones

4

: someone or something that lives on the labors of others : parasite

… a new Utopia in which robots … do all the work while human drones recline in pneumatic bliss.

—John Diebold

drone

2 of 3

verb

droned; droning

intransitive verb

1

a

: to make a sustained deep murmuring, humming, or buzzing sound

droning bees

The air conditioner droned.

b

: to talk in a persistently dull or monotonous tone

droning on and on about his health

2

: to pass, proceed, or act in a dull, drowsy, or indifferent manner

The afternoon droned on.

transitive verb

1

: to utter or pronounce with a drone

2

: to pass or spend in dull or monotonous activity or in idleness

droning the years away

droner noun

droningly

ˈdrō-niŋ-lē 

adverb

drone

3 of 3

noun (2)

1

: a deep sustained or monotonous sound : hum

the drone of the motor

2

music : an instrument or part of an instrument (such as one of the fixed-pitch pipes of a bagpipe) that sounds a continuous unvarying tone

3

music : pedal point

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• couch potato
• deadbeat
• do-nothing
• idler
• layabout
• lazybones
• loafer
• lotus-eater
• slouch
• slug
• slugabed
• sluggard

Verb

• bumble
• burr
• buzz
• hum
• whir
• whirr
• whish
• whiz
• whizz
• zip
• zoom

Noun (2)

• burr
• buzz
• chirr
• churr
• hum
• purr
• thrum
• whir
• whirr
• whiz
• whizz
• zoom

Examples of drone in a Sentence

Verb

We could hear wasps droning in the garden.

the sound of droning bees all around us

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

The earbuds cut the droning bass tones of the fan entirely, leaving only a faint breeze. —Mark Knapp, PCMAG, 11 Apr. 2024

Sound canceling in headphones and car stereos is usually used to wash out continuous, droning background sounds like engine noise. —Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN, 29 Mar. 2024

Over a beat that blends classic boom-bap with hazy, droning synths and sultry keys reminiscent of the G-funk heyday, Snoop delivers a characteristically cool verse that name-checks a bunch of his fellow Golden State hip-hop pioneers. —Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 29 Mar. 2024

And male midshipman fish make droning mating calls that can reach 130 decibels. —Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Feb. 2024

But in the meantime Russia has the advantage of mass over its much smaller neighbor Ukraine, in everything from the production of artillery shells (and now drones) to reservoirs of labor. —Tim Lister, CNN, 29 Jan. 2024

Almost like a Dobro — if anyone's familiar with that — with a droning tone on it. —Brenton Blanchet, Peoplemag, 23 Feb. 2024

Some have proposed Special Forces raids, others drone strikes, others naval blockades. —Christian Schneider, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023

The result is the drifting synth waltzes and accordion laments, a set that transmutes the instrument’s droning tones into a sweep of introspective, breath-catching moments of beauty. —Pitchfork, 14 Dec. 2023

Noun

The International Energy Agency warned on Friday that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries risk disrupting trade in petroleum products like diesel. —Daryna Krasnolutska, Fortune, 13 Apr. 2024

Iran also has a large inventory of drones that have a range of about 1,200 to 1,550 miles and are capable of flying low to evade radar. —Thomas Fuller, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024

Russia fired 82 missiles and drones in total, including six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles – none of which Ukraine’s air defenses were able to down. —Svitlana Vlasova, CNN, 11 Apr. 2024

The initiative will provide new and upgraded equipment to the Ministry of Civil Protection, including amphibious firefighting aircrafts, drones for aerial monitoring, fire detection and extinguishing systems, fire control centers and more than 1,000 firefighting vehicles. —Paul Tugwell, Fortune Europe, 9 Apr. 2024

In recent months, Russia’s refineries and oil terminals have become priority targets of Ukrainian drone attacks. —Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2024

Last week, De Haan warned that the Russia-Ukraine war and drone attacks on Russian refineries could negatively affect gas prices. —David Clarey, Journal Sentinel, 1 Apr. 2024

Amid concerns about a wider conflict in the region, Lebanese state media reported that an Israeli drone struck a car in the southern Lebanese town of Konin. —Melanie Lindman, Wafaa Shurafa, arkansasonline.com, 1 Apr. 2024

At the moment, there are ways to defeat drones, including by blasting communication radio frequencies that the remote operator uses to control the drone, explained Barros. —Caitlin McFall, Fox News, 31 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1), Verb, and Noun (2)

Middle English, from Old English drān; akin to Old High German treno drone, Greek thrēnos dirge

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

circa 1520, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Noun (2)

1502, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing drone

• drone on
• drone attacks
• drone strikes

Kids Definition

drone

1 of 3 noun

ˈdrōn 

1

: a stingless male bee (as of the honeybee) whose only function is to mate with the queen bee

2

: a lazy person

3

: an aircraft or ship without a pilot that is controlled by radio signals

drone

2 of 3 verb

droned; droning

: to make or speak with a continuous low humming sound

a plane droning overhead

droned on about himself

drone

3 of 3 noun

1

: one of the pipes on a bagpipe that sound fixed continuous tones

2

: a deep monotonous sound : hum