drone

¹ American  

[drohn] / droʊn /

noun

1. the male of the honeybee and other bees, stingless and making no honey.

2. 1. an uncrewed military aircraft or ship that can navigate autonomously, without human control or beyond the line of sight.

      We picked up the GPS signal of a U.S. spy drone.

      They used a radio-controlled drone to test the weapon in an isolated spot.

   2. (loosely) any uncrewed airborne device, especially a small one, that is guided remotely: used for industrial, commercial, and recreational purposes, such as photography and filming, delivery, mining, etc..

      The grocery company will test drones for home delivery and pickup.

3. a drudge.

   I don't want to be a drone who mindlessly does exactly what I'm told, but rather someone who asserts a little control in my work.

4. a person who lives on the labor of others; parasitic loafer.

   That lazy drone was asleep when he should have been weeding the garden.

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drone ² American  

[drohn] / droʊn /

verb (used without object)

• drones,
  present (3rd person singular)
• droned,
  past participle,  past
• droning
  present participle

1. to make a dull, continued, low, monotonous sound; hum; buzz.

2. to speak in a monotonous tone.

3. to proceed in a dull, monotonous manner (usually followed byon ).

   The meeting droned on for hours.

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verb (used with object)

• drones,
  present (3rd person singular)
• droned,
  past participle,  past
• droning
  present participle

1. to say in a dull, monotonous tone.

noun

1. Music.

   1. a continuous low tone produced by the bass pipes or bass strings of musical instruments.

   2. the pipes (especially of the bagpipe) or strings producing this tone.

   3. a bagpipe equipped with such pipes.

2. a monotonous low tone; humming or buzzing sound.

3. a person who speaks in a monotonous tone.

drone ¹ British  

/ drəʊn /

noun

1. a male bee in a colony of social bees, whose sole function is to mate with the queen

2. a person who lives off the work of others

3. a pilotless radio-controlled aircraft

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drone ² British  

/ drəʊn /

verb

1. (intr) to make a monotonous low dull sound; buzz or hum

2. to utter (words) in a monotonous tone, esp to talk without stopping

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noun

1. a monotonous low dull sound

2. music

   1. a sustained bass note or chord of unvarying pitch accompanying a melody

   2. ( as modifier )

      a drone bass

3. music one of the single-reed pipes in a set of bagpipes, used for accompanying the melody played on the chanter

4. a person who speaks in a low monotonous tone

drone Scientific  

/ drōn /

1. A male bee, especially a honeybee whose only function is to fertilize the queen. Drones have no stingers, do no work, and do not produce honey.

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drone Cultural  

1. In military usage, a pilotless aircraft used for reconnaissance and, more recently, for launching aerial attacks.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• droner
  noun
• droning
  adjective
• dronish
  adjective
• droningly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• droning
  present
• droned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• drone
  simple
• drones
  simple
• have droned
  perfect
• has droned
  perfect
• am droning
  progressive
• are droning
  progressive
• is droning
  progressive
• have been droning
  perfect progressive
• has been droning
  perfect progressive

Past

• droned
  simple
• had droned
  perfect
• was droning
  progressive
• were droning
  progressive
• had been droning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will drone
  simple
• will have droned
  perfect
• will be droning
  progressive
• will have been droning
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of drone¹

First recorded before 1000; 1945–50 drone ¹ for def. 2a; Middle English drone, drane, Old English dran, dron; akin to Old High German treno, German Drohne

Origin of drone²

First recorded in 1490–1500; from drone ¹; compare Middle English drounen “to boom, roar,” Icelandic drynja “to bellow,” Gothic drunjus “noise”

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Explanation

To drone is to make a low, continuous noise that sounds like humming or buzzing. On summer nights, you might hear cicadas drone, and on snowy winter mornings, hear your neighbor's snow blower drone. Like animals and machines, people drone too, their voices sounding dull and tedious: "When my history teacher drones on, it's hard to stay awake." Drone is also a noun, meaning the monotonous sound itself, like the drone of a boring lecture; or a male worker bee; or a person who's as unambitious as a worker bee. Finally, there are the drones that fly by remote control, doing surveillance, gathering weather information, and occasionally firing missiles for the military.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

drone drones droned droning

Deep inside an underground bunker in eastern Ukraine, commanders monitor the battlefield through a live video feed as a Ukrainian drone intercepts a Russian surveillance drone.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

To skim costs in that shift, the company used cheap, faulty battery packs that, it turns out, were the real culprit for the drone failure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

The Ukrainians had flown a drone over the path he should follow.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

And according to specialist publication Via Satellite, Eutelsat's OneWeb constellation is unable to support drone and ground robot operations because of its limited capacity and lack of compact satellite terminals.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

That was how he could see the progress of the lizard drone as it moved the rest of the way up the stairs and onto a part of the stage completely cloaked in darkness.

From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Understanding these compromises could also lead to improvements in aviation technology, particularly drones and other robotic aircraft that use flapping wings.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026

The Daily Telegraph leads with reports that RAF jets had two close encounters with unidentified drones earlier this year while they were completing training exercises over the North Sea.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

In September, Russia launched 3,520 jet-powered Geran drones, only 54% of which were intercepted, according to Yurii Ihnat, a Ukrainian air-force spokesman.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

As Michael and Olivia investigate, they learn that Moondancer was quietly transitioning from public entertainment events to manufacturing AI-driven military/kamikaze drones.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

He looked to the sky as if waiting for a squadron of drones to swoop into action.

From "City Spies" by James Ponti

At one event, in which Oz was interviewed by Dean Cain, an actor who played Superman in a 1990s television show, about 50 people listened in as Oz droned on about an anti-fraud task force.

From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026

Maher droned, becoming what feels like the 587th famous performer to mourn their inability to see Louis C.K. smirk at them on a network show.

From Salon ● May 16, 2024

Footage posted by Sam Yebri, a former City Council candidate, showed smoke billowing in the street as people yelled and a siren droned.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2023

As the land war droned on, the power of the submarine was being starkly demonstrated on the high seas.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Lennie droned to himself softly, “I ain’t gonna say nothin’ .

From "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

“Ups & Downs” is an instrumental with a droning keyboard—perhaps a harmonium—along with a clarinet and clattering percussion that sounds like a drum kit being slowly unpacked from its case.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

The little wagon retains the flat-four’s characteristic droning when it revs out, as when merging with highway traffic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

"It is a very low humming, droning, pulsating noise. It's incredibly intrusive and distressing," she said.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2025

He is so incredible with Trane, but he has this droning depth of this like voodoo trance that he gets into on the bass.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025

I stood still and listened to the droning tones of his deep voice.

From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls

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