drone

Definition

A male ant, bee, or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen.

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.

Example Sentences

• "All with united force combine to drive / The lazy drones from the laborious hive."
• "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. […]"
• "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."