drone

Word family

drone1 /drəʊn $ droʊn/ verb [intransitiveI]

1 CLOW SOUND OR VOICEto make a continuous low dull sound 发出持续的嗡嗡声，嗡嗡作响

An airplane droned overhead.

一架飞机在头顶上轰鸣。

2 drone on phrasal verbphr v SAYto speak in a boring way, usually for a long time 唠唠叨叨

about

Tom was droning on about work.

汤姆在没完没了地谈工作。

Examples from the Corpus

drone• There were cars and aeroplanes droning.• A lawn mower droned a few houses down.• They droned about, surrounded by the black, dissolving snorts of high explosive.• The windscreen wipers droned on and on.• I'd almost fallen asleep while Uncle Hamish had been droning on.• A plane droned overhead.

drone2 noun

1 CLOW SOUND OR VOICE[singular] a continuous low dull sound 嗡嗡声

drone of

the steady drone of traffic

车来车往发出的持续的嗡嗡声

2. HBI[countableC] a male bee that does no work 雄蜂，公蜂

3. LAZY[countableC] someone who has a good life but does not work to earn it or give anything back to society 〔不劳而获的〕寄生虫

4. [countableC] technical an aircraft that does not have a pilot, but is operated by radio 〔无线电操纵的〕无人遥控飞机

Examples from the Corpus

drone• The organism of a hive yields integration for its community of worker bees, drones, pollen and brood.• They needed the repetition, the dense hypnotic drone of woods and water, but above all they needed to be together.• The police use high-tech radar drones to catch speeders.• Nothing in the sing-song drone showed that he noticed.• There he crowded against other inhabitants in mutual discomfort as the drone of bombers drew near.• Gradually, the drone of the Boeing's engines faded into the background of her thought.• Didn't she hear it, the drone, the hum, that awful, teasing, dreary hum?• Shelby was one of the drones on the factory floor.• I fall asleep to the drone of sirens and helicopters overhead.• She was labeled a welfare drone.

drone of• The drone of the traffic was keeping him awake.

Origin drone2

Old English dran “male bee”

Chinese

Corpus