drone
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɹəʊn/
ipa: /dɹoʊn/
rhymes: -əʊn
Forms: form: drones
Etymology: From Middle English drane, from Old English drān, from Proto-West Germanic *drānu, from Proto-Germanic *drēniz, *drēnuz, *drenô (“an insect, drone”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreh₁n- (“bee, drone, hornet”). Cognate with Danish drone (“drone”), Dutch dar (“male bee or wasp”), German Drohne, dialectal German Dräne, Trehne, Trene (“drone”), Low German drone (“drone”), Swedish drönje, drönare (“drone”).
The etymology of the sense of "remote-controlled aircraft" is disputed; theories include early military UAVs dumbly flying on preset paths.
Senses: examples: text: All with united force combine to drive / The lazy drones from the laborious hive.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A male ant, bee, or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen.
examples: text: SHYLOCK: / The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder, / Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day / More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me; / Therefore I part with him; and part with him / To one what I would have him help to waste / His borrowed purse. […]
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:
text: he that gathereth not every day as much as I doe, the next day shall be set beyond the river, and be banished from the Fort as a drone, till he amend his conditions or starve.
ref: 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 117:
text: by living as a drone, to be an unprofitable or unworthy member of so learned and noble a society
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
glosses: One who does not work; a lazy person, an idler.
synonyms: drudge
glosses: One who performs menial or tedious work.
examples: text: Several images of the compound were obtained via a drone overflight.
text: One team member launched a camera drone over the Third Pole.
text: An atomic tested Flying Fortress will make a nonstop flight from Florida, and from the time the first engine kicks over until the last propeller stops spinning at Bolling, no hands will touch the controls. A radio controlled drone, it will make the journey with its mother ship, another Fortress, as part of the Experimental Guided Missiles Group contribution to the demonstration.
ref: 1948 September 23, “Air Force Day”, in U.S. Air Services, page 6:
text: The United Nations is setting up a unit to investigate American drone strikes and other targeted killings of terrorist suspects, Ben Emmerson, the United Nations special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, said Thursday.
ref: 2012 October 25, Scott Shane, “Drone Strikes to Be Investigated”, in New York Times:
text: A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.
ref: 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3:
text: In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
ref: 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:
text: In April, as an Air Canada Jazz flight was landing at Trudeau Airport, a drone came so close the pilot was able to identify it as a quadcopter.
ref: 2017 October 17, Christina Caron, “After Drone Hits Plane in Canada, New Fears About Air Safety”, in New York Times:
text: NR made extensive use of drones, helicopters and a team of divers to inspect the flood-damaged section of embankment that forced the closure of one of the lines into Drax from February 6-April 20.
ref: 2020 May 20, Paul Stephen, “NR beats floods to secure tracks to Drax”, in Rail, page 58, photo caption:
text: Indeed, referring to his drone murder extermination campaign Obama bragged: "I'm really good at killing people!" Those are Obama's own words!
ref: 2021, Francis A. Boyle, World Politics, Human Rights, and International Law, page 9:
glosses: A remotely operated vehicle.
An aircraft operated by remote control, especially an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
synonyms: UAV
UAS
examples: text: The Apex boat is a small radio-controlled craft which tows, at an angle, two Drone boats. The latter are small craft filled with explosives to be detonated from the control radio of the Apex boat.
ref: 1946, Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, Report of Operations, volume 1, page 73:
text: Firefish, a drone boat, is the second radio-controlled target used by the detachment. A 17-foot fiber glass craft, it weighs 1700 pounds and operates from the support ship by remote control at a range of up to five miles using tracking radar.
ref: 1968 July 23, “Long-Distance Crews”, in All Hands, number 618, page 27:
text: There, in the heart of a desert target range, operates a fleet of remote-control QM-56 mobile land drones, more familiarly described as modified tanks.
ref: 1968 September 23, “Desert Tank Corps”, in All Hands, number 620, page 13:
text: "Libya obtained a remote controlled explosive boat system consisting of 30-knot drone boats packed with high explosives controlled from a cabin cruiser type craft," Butts told the seapower and strategic and critical materials subcomittee.
ref: 1984 March 1, UPI, “Libya owns drone boats, Navy says”, in Eugene Register-Guard, page 2:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A remotely operated vehicle.
Any remotely-operated vehicle (ROV), especially when multiple such vehicles are operated from a larger vessel.
synonyms: ROV
ROUV
examples: text: The van is locally referred to as "a drone" because it is compact and stable under extreme conditions. It is also very fast. Technically though, it is a Toyota Hiace, which is usually used for commercial purposes.
ref: 2021 February 4, Alex Mugasha, “Why Uganda's security agencies have fallen in love with the "Drone" van”, in Nile Post:
text: He has been arrested several times, transported in drone vans and brutalized in various detention facilities.
ref: 2021 February 4, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, “Horror inside a kidnap drone”, in The Observer:
text: The Toyota Hiace is a light commercial van that can be used as a minibus, a taxi, or even an ambulance. But in Uganda, the "drone" has a sinister reputation. Chris Atukwasize, a cartoonist at the Daily Monitor newspaper, dubbed it the #WheelsOfSteal and rendered it as a skull: brake lights dripping blood, its front grille a row of teeth, and hands plastered behind its tinted back windows, pleading for help.
ref: 2021 March 3, Liam Taylor, “They came in plainclothes with guns: 'Abducted' by Uganda's army”, in Al Jazeera:
text: Earlier this week, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa summoned the Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja together with the Ministers of Security and Internal Affairs and parliamentary whips to address the said return of drones on the streets.
ref: 2022 October 2, Sam Waswa, “UPDF Probes Drone Raid at Journalist's Home”, in Chimp Reports:
text: A minibus van, often numberless and dubbed the 'drone', gained notoriety for kidnaps and disappearances.
ref: 2022 October 20, Albert K Awedoba, Andreas Mehler, Benedikt Kamski, David Sebudubudu, Africa Yearbook, volume 18, →ISBN, page 419:
glosses: A Toyota HiAce or a similar van, especially one used by Ugandan state agents to kidnap opposition members.
examples: text: The billionaire-friendly media drones and frenzied multiculturalist politicians are imposing "vibrant" third world social violence onto Australians, and Australians don't get to vote against this "bipartisan" conspiracy. The hyperactive globalist politicians and media drones might find themselves facing firing squads if they don't change their corrupt ways.
ref: 2009 December 18, Benway (original non-Zionist), “Shocking Jewish faggot property pimp attack on Australia”, in aus.politics (Usenet):
text: Instead, you got into lockstep with all the other hive-mind libtard drones and voted for the slimy corrupt scumbag bitch who was under *two* active Congressional investigations (a first in history, BTW), Hitlery Clinton.
ref: 2017 January 19, The Party Of Trump (The Party For Winners), “Re: Clinton Cash”, in alt.checkmate (Usenet):
glosses: One who lacks the ability to think critically and independently, especially one who follows a group blindly; a non-player character.
topics: BDSM
lifestyle
sexuality
coordinate_terms: programmer
glosses: In dronification kink, one who is mindless and obedient to a dominant, characterized by a detached and robotic identity and an anonymous appearance, typically composed of a latex suit and gas mask.
Derived terms: alimony drone
antidrone
combat drone
counterdrone
drone-athon
drone-a-thon
droneboarding
drone fly
Dronehenge
dronelike
drone metal
dronepipe
dronescape
dronesome
dronespace
droney
dronie
dronification
dronish
dronist
dronology
drony
microdrone
minidrone
Nintendrone
office drone
suicide drone