drone
drone [drone drones droned droning] noun, verb BrE [drəʊn] NAmE [droʊn]
noun
1. usually singular a continuous low noise
•the distant drone of traffic
2. usually singular a continuous low sound made by some musical instruments, for example the ↑bagpipes, over which other notes are played or sung; the part of the instrument that makes this noise
3. a male ↑bee that does not work
compare ↑queen bee, ↑worker
4. a person who is lazy and gives nothing to society while others work
•The medieval lord of the manor was what some today would call a drone.
5. an aircraft without a pilot, controlled from the ground
Word Origin:
Old English drān, drǣn ‘male bee’, from a West Germanic verb meaning ‘resound, boom’; related to Dutch dreunen ‘to drone’, German dröhnen ‘to roar’, and Swedish dröna ‘to drowse’.
Example Bank:
•the continuous drone of the engine
Derived: ↑drone on
verb intransitive
to make a continuous low noise
•A plane was droning in the distance.
•a droning voice
Verb forms: 
Word Origin:
Old English drān, drǣn ‘male bee’, from a West Germanic verb meaning ‘resound, boom’; related to Dutch dreunen ‘to drone’, German dröhnen ‘to roar’, and Swedish dröna ‘to drowse’.
Example Bank:
•A small plane was droning in the distance.
•I fell asleep to the sound of their voices droning through the warm afternoon.
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