/drone-meaning

/drone-meaning-etymology

-) Verb.

-) Pronunciation and accent: drəʊn. 

-) Etymology: either from DRONE “bee”, or from DRONE “monotonous sound”.

-) Preterite tense: droned. Preterite participle: droned.

-) Present participle: droning.

-) Intransitively: -) 1. (of an insect; as a bee) to cause a monotonous or murmuring sound. Hence, (of a person) to speak monotonously.

-) Documented since 1500.

-) Synonyms for “drone”: hum, buzz.

-) Translation: bourdonner, in French; zumbar, in Spanish; ronzare, in Italian.

Within doors the bottle-green flies came out of their lethargy and droned and bumped on the panes.

F. Norris… The Pit… 1798

A profusion of large ants swarmed upon the ground; bats whisked by, and mosquitoes droned overhead.

Stevenson… Travels with a Donkey… 1879

Myriads of tiny insects droned venomously.

E. Abbott… The Sick-a-Bed Lady… 1911

No bees droned, or any insect.

M. Rawlings… The Yearling… 1938

Flies droned over the dates and figs that the boys pulled from their pockets to eat.

C. Dawson… Mr. Wicker's Window… 1952

-) 2. (From the noun DRONE: bee) to behave like a drone bee; to act sluggishly or idly. Hence: (of something) to become monotonous.

-) Documented since 1500.

A man rapped sharply on a table, and the conversation droned away into silence.

J. London… Children of the Frost… 1902

-) Transitively: -) 1. (Of a person) to utter droningly or monotonously.

-) 2. To “spend” (one’s life, a part of one’s life) sluggishly.

-) Documented since 1700.

… it must be wearisome to drone away one's life in these dull fields.

The Eclectic Magazine…

-) English words derived from the noun “drone”: dronish, dronishly, dronishness, droning, droningly, droner, droned.

 

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