drone
1 Americannoun
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the male of the honeybee and other bees, stingless and making no honey.
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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.
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(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.
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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.
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a person who lives on the labor of others; parasitic loafer.
That lazy drone was asleep when he should have been weeding the garden.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
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Music.
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a continuous low tone produced by the bass pipes or bass strings of musical instruments.
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the pipes (especially of the bagpipe) or strings producing this tone.
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a bagpipe equipped with such pipes.
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a monotonous low tone; humming or buzzing sound.
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a person who speaks in a monotonous tone.
noun
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a male bee in a colony of social bees, whose sole function is to mate with the queen
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a person who lives off the work of others
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a pilotless radio-controlled aircraft
verb
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(intr) to make a monotonous low dull sound; buzz or hum
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to utter (words) in a monotonous tone, esp to talk without stopping
noun
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a monotonous low dull sound
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music
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a sustained bass note or chord of unvarying pitch accompanying a melody
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( as modifier )
a drone bass
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music one of the single-reed pipes in a set of bagpipes, used for accompanying the melody played on the chanter
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a person who speaks in a low monotonous tone
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dronesimple
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dronessimple
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have dronedperfect
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has dronedperfect
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am droningprogressive
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are droningprogressive
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is droningprogressive
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have been droningperfect progressive
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has been droningperfect progressive
Past
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dronedsimple
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had dronedperfect
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was droningprogressive
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were droningprogressive
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had been droningperfect progressive
Future
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”
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.
Vocabulary lists containing drone
A Long Walk to Water
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Instead of "Said": Words That Sound Like What They Mean
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"Of Mice and Men"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Trump has been impressed by Ukraine’s resilience and its drone industry, which has grown to producing millions of drones a year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Ukrainian officials say they urgently need Patriots and other air defence systems to stem wave after wave of Russian drone and missile attacks.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Pair trying to fly drone over wildfire have to be rescued at 'public expense'
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
The Chinese drone maker said this year it delivered thousands of pounds of supplies and hauled away more than 6,000 pounds of refuse generated by climbers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Children may be tempted to speak or chant the drone part, but it is important that they sing it, maintaining a constant pitch and good tone.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
"We've known for a long time that we don't want to be shooting $6m interceptors at $1,000 drones," she says.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The company has previously said U.S. suspicions about its drones are unfounded and are a form of protectionism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
The electronic jammers are the size of a tablet computer, and are designed to block the detection of any drones it is fitted to.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
The size of a tablet computer and attached to drones, the military-grade jammers can hinder Russian air defence systems from tracking and targeting such weapons in-flight, Downing Street said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
After lunch, Mr. Rothman drones on about the Silk Road.
From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon
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
One day after it got too bizarre, the actors said nothing funny and court proceedings droned on to keep Gladden off their scent.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
Then an airplane droned in the distance, grew louder, then fainter, then louder again.
From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George
An audio reader daren’t go flat, for fear of droning on and boring the listener, but as this audiobook shows, excessive buoyancy also carries a risk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 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
It’s not “Stayin’ Alive” throbbing but a Gibbsian falsetto droning, “Get on down.”
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2024
She heard a loud droning sound and glanced up.
From "Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
