drones 1 of 3

noun (1)

plural of drone
1
as in slugs
a lazy person those drones just lie around while we do all the work

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in laborers
a person who does very hard or dull work after lunch my fellow drones and I shuffle back to our cubicles

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

drones

2 of 3

noun (2)

plural of drone
as in hums
a monotonous sound like that of an insect in motion heard the drone of an airplane overhead

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

drones

3 of 3

verb

present tense third-person singular of drone
1
as in buzzes
to fly, turn, or move rapidly with a fluttering or vibratory sound the sound of droning bees all around us

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2
as in lounges
to spend time doing nothing instead of getting a job, he preferred to drone and live off his parents

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of drones
Noun
Between Thursday and Sunday, Russia fired almost 1,500 drones at Ukraine, and around 800 of them were jet-powered, Zelensky said. — Hanna Arhirova, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2026 Russia overnight shot down 239 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions, occupied Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Monday. — ABC News, 31 Aug. 2026 The Rainmaker drones seeded in a particular pattern in the clouds, and the resulting snowfall was easy to spot on radar as theirs. — Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 31 Aug. 2026 The ministry plans to use attack drones in coordination with long-range missiles for more cost-effective counterstrikes. — Mia Osmonbekov, Fortune, 31 Aug. 2026 The Jordanian military did not comment on whether other drones or missiles had penetrated its defenses and reached the air bases. — Jane Arraf, NPR, 31 Aug. 2026 An Army unit based in Europe was building its own drones before LaNeve directed it to end its efforts and return to being a traditional infantry battalion, officials said in August. — Ben Finley, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2026 In principle, China could eventually operate groups where a conventional carrier provides fighters while ships like Sichuan provide drones, helicopters, troops, and landing craft. — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 30 Aug. 2026 Ukraine must now adapt its defenses against this high volume of FPV drones. — Vikram Mittal, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drones
  1. slugs
  2. laborers
  3. hums
  4. buzzes
  5. bums
  6. snails
  7. workers
  8. purrs
Noun
  • With the light load of powder that was behind them, these slugs couldn’t possibly have killed the tigress unless an extremely lucky shot had put them into a vital area at very close range.
    — Leslie E. Tassell, Outdoor Life, 27 Aug. 2026
  • Remember to bury the container deep enough to let the slugs in and out.
    — Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 24 Aug. 2026
Definition of slugs
Noun
  • Many worked as laborers in building projects in an era of Western colonial rule across much of Asia.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Built in 1610 by Spanish and Indigenous laborers, the church was destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt that drove Spanish colonizers out of the region for 12 years.
    — Dan Fellner, AZCentral.com, 23 Aug. 2026
Definition of laborers
Noun
  • The bread machine works on a timer and hums along at its regular pace.
    — Karla Walsh, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Aug. 2026
  • The seventh-floor lobby hums with Adorn Bar and Lounge, coworking tables, and live music Thursday through Sunday.
    — Rima Suqi, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 July 2026
Definition of hums
Verb
  • Stand-Up Paddleboarding at Lakeside Marina Jessica Verne The alarm buzzes early on our second full day in South Lake Tahoe.
    — Wendy Altschuler, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026
  • The kitchen buzzes as volunteers carry in trays of Creole dishes and barbecue while one of the sisters stirs a large cooler of lemon margaritas.
    — Windsor Johnston, NPR, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of buzzes
Verb
  • Critical thinking really bums them out.
    — Ed Masley, AZCentral.com, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Then Jason and Thor shower together, each lathering the other’s back and bums up with fewer orgasms than an old Herbal Essences commercial.
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2026
Definition of bums
Noun
  • Scientists rescued 34 endangered humped tree snails from Guam by collecting them in empty peanut butter jars ahead of a powerful typhoon.
    — Brittney Melton, NPR, 27 Aug. 2026
  • She and her hundreds of pet snails are visited by a young man named Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich) who has been sent by her American publisher to convince her to sign a contract to write one more Ripley novel.
    — Rebecca Ford, Vanity Fair, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of snails
Noun
  • At the same time, many of these tech companies, like Microsoft and IBM, have been providing accessible professional certificate programs to workers across the globe in hopes of closing the skills gap.
    — Charlotte Hu, Time, 26 Aug. 2026
  • Chesnot | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images The platform at one point served more than 500,000 workers, also referred to as turkers, according to Amazon.
    — Annie Palmer, CNBC, 26 Aug. 2026
Definition of workers
Noun
  • Kimie Smothermon begins each day greeted by the squeals, chirps and purrs of nearly 400 guinea pigs.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Wafting odors of 100-octane gasoline and rumbling purrs of V8 engines punched through the overcast morning at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday as the Velocity Invitational car meet entered its second day.
    — Camila Pedrosa, Sacbee.com, 31 May 2026
Definition of purrs

Browse Nearby Words

droners
drones
droning
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Drones.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drones. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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