Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Drone   /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."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Drone" Quotes from Famous Books



... drone of the strange car as it swooped down upon us, coming to a sudden halt a yard distant, ...
— The Motor Pirate • George Sidney Paternoster

... but the tiny coverlet And pillow for the baby's head; And pray Thou, may The door stand open and the day Send ever in a gentle breeze, With fragrance from the locust-trees, And drowsy moan of doves, and blur Of robin-chirps, and drone of bees, With afterhushes of the stir Of intermingling sounds, and then The good-wife and the smile of her Filling the silences again— The cricket's call, And the wee cot, Dear Lord of ...
— Riley Love-Lyrics • James Whitcomb Riley

... the climate is no longer arctic. Butterflies become larger and more abundant, grasses with imposing spread of panicle wave above your shoulders, and the summery drone of the bumblebee thickens the air. The Dwarf Pine, the tree-mountaineer that climbs highest and braves the coldest blasts, is found scattered in storm-beaten clumps from the summit of the pass about half-way down the canon. Here ...
— The Mountains of California • John Muir

... restraining, torturing, perverting, and mystifying, called education, is quite another. We have had women enough befooled under the one system, pray let us try the other. The girl must early be impressed with the idea that she is to be "a hand, not a mouth"; a worker, and not a drone, in the great hive of human activity. Like the boy, she must be taught to look forward to a life of self-dependence, and early prepare herself for some trade or profession. Woman has relied heretofore too entirely for her support on the needle—that one-eyed demon ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... when the roar of mill machinery begins to reverberate through the hills of the future Joplin, arousing the vast energies and resources of We-all, Pewee and Big Wheat, let us be generous. If there was a sponge, kicker, shirk or drone, let us cover his selfishness with the mantle of charity. Leave him under the beating light of progress to wrestle with whatever remnant of a conscience he may happen to have. If he can stand by and coolly watch us work our gizzards ...
— Sally of Missouri • R. E. Young


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 e-Free Translation.com