| 释义 |
▪ I. drone, n.1|drəʊn|
Forms: α. 1 dran, dræn, 2–6 (s.w. dial. 7–9) drane (6 drayne, 6–7 dran); β. ? 3 dro(n), 5– drone (6 dron, drowne, 6–7 droane).
[OE. dran, dræn (? drán, drǽn). Cf. OS., pl. drani (? drâni), MLG. drâne, drône, E.Fris. drâne, LG. drône, whence mod.Ger. drohne. Also OHG. treno, MHG. trene, tren (Maaler 1561 trän), mod.HG. dial. trehne, trene ‘drone’.
The etymological relations of these forms are difficult to make out, esp. in our ignorance whether the vowel in OE. and OS. was a or â. A short a would bring the OE. and OS. words together, and put both in ablaut relation to OHG. treno, from an ablaut series dren- dran- drun-, with primary sense ‘to resound, boom’, whence also ON. drynja, and mod.G. dröhnen (see droun v.). But an OE. á (:—ai) would not belong to the same ablaut series as OS. á (:—ê). An OE. str. fem. dran, drane, would regularly give ME. and mod. s.w. dial. drane; but it leaves unexplained the mod. drone (found chiefly since 1483, but app. indicated by dro-, in a mutilated (?) 12th c. MS. glossary, Wr.-Wülcker 543/8). On the other hand, neither are the facts explained by an OE. drán, since this would have given ME. dron, droon, mod. drone, Sc. drane; for drane was the ordinary ME., and is now a southern Eng., not a Sc. form.]
1. The male of the honey-bee. It is a non-worker, its function being to impregnate the queen-bee.
αc1000ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 121/10 Fucus, dran. a1100Ags. Voc. Ibid. 318/35 Fucus, dræn. a1131O.E. Chron. an. 1127, Swa drane doth in hiue. c1394P. Pl. Crede 726 As dranes doþ nouȝt but drynkeþ vp þe huny. c1440J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. iv. 21 Dranes loue weel reste. 1531Elyot Gov. i. ii, If any drane or other unprofitable bee entreth in to the hyue. 1570Levins Manip. 19/1 A Drane, bee, fucus. Ibid. 200/2 A Drayne. Ibid. 168/5 A Drone. 1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 917 The Drone called in Latine, Fucus..in English, a Drone, a Dran. 1880W. Cornwall Gloss., Drain, a drone. 1880Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Drane, a drone.
β12..Vocab. in Wr.-Wülcker 543/8 Fucus, dro(n). 1483Cath. Angl. 109/2 A Drone, asilus, fucus. 1508Dron [see 3]. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §122 There is a bee called a drone, and she..wyll eate the honny, and gather nothynge. 1607Hieron Wks. I. 389 It helpeth not the droane, but the bee. 1637Heywood Dial. Wks. 1874 VI. 322 The Bee makes honey till his sting be gone, But that once lost, he soone becomes a Drone. 1720Gay Poems (1745) I. 7 Some against hostile drones the hive defend. 1889Geddes Evol. of Sex 19 The drone, although passive as compared with the unsexed workers, is active when compared with the extraordinarily passive queen.
2. fig.
a. A non-worker; a lazy idler, a sluggard.
a1529Skelton Agst. Scottes 172 The rude rank Scottes, lyke dronken dranes. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Pref. 3 Idle loiterers and verai dranes. 1570B. Googe Pop. Kingd. i. (1880) 8 a, Droanes that greedily consume the fruites of others paine. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 205 The lazie yawning Drone. 1678Otway Friendship in F. v. i, A Droan of a Husband. 1693Prideaux Lett. (Camden) 161 Y⊇ preferments of y⊇ Church were never designed for such drones. 1845Disraeli Sybil (1863) 52 The lands are held by active men and not by drones. 1940Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets opp. title page, In the heart of London's clubland there stands a tall and grimly forbidding edifice known to taxi-drivers and the elegant young men who frequent its precincts as the Drones Club. Yet its somewhat austere exterior belies the atmosphere of cheerful optimism and bonhomie that prevails within. For here it is that young gallants of Mayfair forgather for the pre-luncheon bracer and to touch lightly on the topics of the day. 1947Hansard Commons 3 Dec. 484 The object of the [Registration for Employment] order is to compile a list of ‘spivs, drones, eels and butterflies’.
b. A pilotless aircraft or missile directed by remote control. Also attrib.
1946in Amer. Speech (1947) XXII. 228/2 The Navy's drones will be..led—by radio control, of course—to a landing field at Roi. Ibid., The drone planes. 1947Britannica Bk. of Yr. 840/2 Drone, a plane handled by remote control from a control or mother ship. 1958Illustr. London News 10 May 770/3 The C-130 will be adapted for the launching and direction of drone missiles. 1966M. Woodhouse Tree Frog iii. 26 Nobody in their right minds would fly a drone out into that sort of radar cover. Ibid. v. 41 A long-range, high-altitude drone surveillance aircraft. 1970Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 4 Unmanned spy aircraft—drones—are to be developed by the American armed services.
3. attrib. and Comb., as drone-bee, drone-cell, drone comb, drone-eggs; drone-like adj.; drone-beetle = dor-beetle; drone-fly, a dipterous insect, Eristalis tenax, of family Syrphidæ, resembling the drone-bee.
1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 91 Ane bumbart, ane *dron bee, ane bag full of flewme. 1538Starkey England i. iii. 77 Much lyke vnto the drowne bees in a hyue. c1540Pilgr. T. 68 in Thynne's Animadv. (1865) App. i. 79, I thought yt had beyn the dran be. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 42 Drone bees, that liue vpon the spoile of the poore bees that labour.
1865Wood Homes without H. xxiii. (1868) 426 There are three kinds of cell in a hive..the worker-cell, the *drone-cell, and the royal-cell.
1909I. Hopkins Bee-Culture ii. i. 30 The difference between worker and *drone comb is in the size of the cells. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Aug. 107/2 Large supplies of drone comb were required for insertion in nuclei so that drones could be raised from queens.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Drone-fly, or Bee fly, a two wing'd fly, so extremely like the common bee as to be at first sight not easily distinguishable from it.
1593Shakes. Lucr. 836, My honey lost, and I, a *drone-like bee [etc.].
▪ II. drone, n.2|drəʊn|
Also 6 (9 s.w. dial.) drane (6 drene, droon, 7 droane).
[app. f. drone v., though its early application to a bag-pipe or other sonorous instrument is somewhat surprising.]
I. a. A continued deep monotonous sound of humming or buzzing, as that of the bass of the bagpipe, the humming of a fly, or the like.
1500–20Dunbar Poems xv. 7 Ane fule, thocht he haif causs or nane, Cryis ay, Gif me, in to a drane [v. rr. rane, drene; rime stane]. 1641Milton Animadv. (1851) 209 Ever..thumming the drone of one plaine Song. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 144 ⁋7 The insects..that torment us with their drones or their stings. 1755Young Centaur ii. Wks. 1757 IV. 140 The dull drone of nominal diversion still humming on, when the short tune of enjoyment is over. 1864Mrs. Gatty Parables fr. Nat. Ser. iv. 131 The occasional drone of the [organ] pipes vibrating drearily through the aisles.
b. transf. A monotonous tone of speech.
1777F. Burney Early Diary (1889) II. 205 I would fain give you..some idea of the drone of her voice. 1827Macaulay Misc. Poems (1860) 416 He commenced his prelection in the dullest of clerical drones. 1888Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Drane, a drawl in speech.
c. A monotonous speaker; a drawler.
1786Burns Ordination x, We never had sic twa drones. 1834Lytton Pompeii i. ii, Some drone of a freedman..reads them a section of Cicero ‘De Officiis'.
II.
2. A bagpipe or similar wind instrument.
1502Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830) 2 A Mynstrell that played upon a droon. 1515Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C iij/2 Yet coulde he pipe and finger well a drone. 1530Palsgr. 215/2 Drone, a bagpype, cornemuse. c1700Wooing of Q. Cath. in Evans O.B. (1784) I. lvi. 310 Our harps and our tabors, and sweet humming drones. 1787Burns Fragm., ‘When Guildford Good’ ix, Caledon threw by the drone, An' did her whittle draw, man. 1858M. Porteous Souter Johnny 30 An' sit an' smirk, an' hotch, an' swear An' blaw the drone.
3. a. The bass pipe of a bagpipe, which emits only one continuous tone.
(The modern Highland bagpipe has three drones.)
1592Lyly Midas iv. i, The bag-pipe's drone his hum lays by. 1627Drayton Agincourt, etc. 152 Then your Bagpypes you may burne, It is neither Droane nor Reed..that will serue your turne. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 516 This Light inspires, and plays upon The Nose of Saint, like Bag-pipe Drone. 1774Pennant Tour in Scotl. in 1772, 303 The bagpipe..had two long pipes or drones and a single short pipe. 1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 90 The drone was here, the chanter yonder. 1879W. H. Stone in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 123 The Irish bagpipe is perhaps the most powerful..keys producing the third and fifth to the note of the chaunter having been added to the drones.
b. On a stringed instrument: a string used to produce a continuous droning sound; the sound so produced. Also attrib.
1793W. Owen Welsh Eng. Dict., Crẘth,..a musical instrument with six strings, the two lowest of which are drones struck by the thumb. 1898T. Watts-Dunton Aylwin (1899) iii. 171 Two of the strings reaching beyond the key-board, used as drones and struck by the thumb. 1954Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 5) IV. 459/1 Three open strings, off the fingerboard, are played as an upper drone by the little finger. 1969N. Deane tr. Bachmann's Orig. Bowing iii. 91 The melody was played principally on the upper strings, with the lower strings frequently acting as a drone. Ibid. 99 The lower of the two strings on the kyjak is primarily a drone-string. 1970Melody Maker 22 Aug. 7/4 The characteristic country ‘drone’ notes vibrating steadily in the bass strings like Eastern music.
4. The tone emitted by the drone of a bag-pipe.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. ii. 85 I am as Melancholly as..the Drone of a Lincolnshire Bagpipe. 1623Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. Ded. 38 What sports they now deuise With Treble and Drone, and Bonfiers, and Bels. 1832–53Whistle-Binkie (Scot. Songs) Ser. i. 54 Till the bags are weel filled, there can nae drone get up. 1879W. H. Stone in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 123 A combination of fixed notes or ‘drones’, with a melody or ‘chaunter’.
5. attrib., as drone-bagpipe, drone-bass, drone-pipe, drone-reed.
1549Compl. Scot. vi. 65 The fyrst hed ane drone bag pipe. a1659Cleveland Gen. Poems, etc. (1677) 2 While his canting Drone-pipe scan'd The mystick Figures of her hand. 1781Cowper Conversation 330 The drone-pipe of an humblebee. 1879W. H. Stone in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 123 The drone reeds are only intended to produce a single note, which can be tuned by a slider on the pipe itself. Ibid. 124 An instrument..with a ‘drone bass’ in the strictest sense of the term.
▪ III. drone, v.1|drəʊn|
Also 7 droan, 9 (dial.) drean.
[f. drone n.1, or n.2, sense 2. (The ME. droun, to roar, appears to be a distinct though radically related word.)]
1. intr. To give forth a continued monotonous sound; to hum or buzz, as a bee or a bagpipe; to talk in a monotonous tone.
1500–20Dunbar Poems xv. 8 He that dronis ay as ane bee Sowld haif ane heirar dull as stane. 1704Swift Mech. Operat. Spirit Misc. (1711) 292 A little paultry Mortal, droning, and dreaming, and drivelling to a Multitude. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. ii. vi, From morning to night..the Tribune drones with oratory on this matter. 1849James Woodman xvii, The inveterate piper droned on. 1863Barnes Dorset Gloss., Drean, to drawl in speaking. 1868Kingsley Christm. Day 13 Beetles drone along the hollow lane.
2. trans. To utter or emit in a dull, monotonous tone. Also with out.
1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair i. iii, A dry grace, as long as a table cloth, and droan'd out by thy sonne. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 352 A..German organ droning its dull round of tunes. 1860Thackeray Round. Papers, Week's Hol. 203 Penitents..droning their dirges.
†3. [f. drone n.2] To smoke (a pipe) (ludicrously compared to playing on a bagpipe). Obs.
1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. iv. iii, His villanous Ganimede and he ha' been droning a tobacco pipe there ever sin' yesterday noone. 1609― Sil. Wom. iv. i, As he lyes on his backe droning a tobacco pipe.
▪ IV. drone, v.2
Also 6 drane.
[f. drone n.1]
To act or behave like a drone bee.
1. intr. To proceed in a sluggish, lazy, or indolent manner. Also to drone it.
1509–1680 [see droning ppl. a. 2]. 1711Puckle Club §606. 112 To which Hive every one, Bee-like, Should bring honey, and not Drone it upon the heroick labour of others. 1858W. Johnson Ionica 87 My soul went droning through the hours. 1891M. E. Wilkins Humble Rom., 2 Old Lovers 49 The business was not quite as wide-awake and vigorous as when in its first youth; it droned a little now.
2. trans. To pass away, drag out, spend (life, time) indolently and sluggishly.
1739Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 180 One that drones away life, without ever labouring. 1843Lytton Last Bar. i. iii, To..drone out manhood in measuring cloth. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 361 Gentlemen who merely drone away existence in a laisser-aller kind of way. |