Dromia 
Dromia (dro'mi-ii), w. [NL., < Gr. Spouiac, a 
kind of fish, < ip6fu>f, a running, < ipa/ie'tv, run: 
see dromedary.] The typical genus of Dromi- 
Sponge-crab 
ia vulgaris). 
idce. They have 2 pairs of podobranchice, 5 pairs of an- 
terior and of posterior arthrobranchia), and 4 pairs of pleu- 
robranchiie. 
dromic, dromical (drom'ik, -i-kal), a. [< Gr. 
ApofiiKOf, good at running, swift, fleet, also per- 
taining to running or to a race-course, < <5p6fiof, 
a running, race-course : see dromos.] 1. Of or 
pertaining to a race-course or dromos, or to 
racing. 2. In the Eastern Church, equivalent 
to basilican as applied to a type of church, from 
its plan resembling that of a race-course. 
In the Eastern church, though the erection of St. So- 
phia, at Constantinople, introduced a new type which al- 
most entirely superseded the old one, the basilican form- 
er, as it was then termed, dromical, from its shape being 
that of a race-course (dromos) was originally as much the 
rule as in the West. Encyc. Brit., III. 418. 
These remarks of course apply only to churches of the 
true Eastern type ; there are many of the kind called 
dromic, or basilican, which exhibit the early Western ar- 
rangement. J. M. Neale, Eastern Church, i. 170. 
Dromiceius (drom-i-se'i-us), . [NL.] Same as 
Drommus. 
Dromicia (dro-mish'i-a), n. [NL. , < Gr. 6po/MK6;, 
good at running, swift: see dromic.] A genus 
of marsupials, including the dormouse phalan- 
gers, such as D. nana. There are several species of 
these little phalangers, resembling dormice in habits, and 
1776 
And of the merchants bought a dromond tall 
They called the Rose-Garland. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, I. 12. 
Dromornis (dro-m6r'nis), n. [NL., < Gr. <Sp<Voc, 
a running (se'e Dromceus), + bpvif, a bird.] 
Same as Dromceornis. Owen, Proc. Zool. Soc., 
1872, p. 682. 
dromos (drom'os), M. ; pi. dromoi (-oi). [< Gr. 
Spottof, a running, course, race-course, < dpafidv, 
run: see dromedary.] 1. In Gr. antiq., a race- 
course. 2. In archceol., an entrance-passage 
or avenue, as to a subterranean treasury; a 
way bordered by rows of columns ; an alley be- 
tween rows of statues, as the usual approaches 
of Egyptian temples. 
Alleys of colossal rams or sphinxes form the approach or 
dromos. C. 0. Muller, Manual of Archa;ol. (trans.), 219. 
drone 1 (dron), v. ; pret. and pp. droned, ppr. 
droning. [Altered, in conformation to drone 2 , 
n., from "droun = Sc. drune, low, murmur, < 
ME. drounen (rare), roar or bellow (said of a 
dragon) ; not in AS. ; = MD. dronen, dreunen, 
tremble, quaver, D. dreunen, make a trembling 
noise, = MLG. dronen, LG. dronen, > G. droli- 
nen, dronen, drone, hum, = Icel. drynja, roar 
(cf. drynr, a roaring, drunur, a thundering), = 
Sw. drona, low, bellow, drone, = Dan. drone, 
peal, rumble, boom (cf. dron, a boom). Cf. 
Goth, drunjus, a sound, voice ; Gr. Bpijvos, a dirge 
(see threne). Hence (remotely) drone 1 *.] I. 
intrants. If. To roar; bellow. 
Hee drouned as a dragon, dredeful of noyes. 
Alisaunder of Macedoine (E. E. T. S.), 1. 985. 
2. To give forth a monotonous, unvaried tone; 
utter a dull humming sound; hum or buzz, as 
a beetle or a bagpipe. 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. 
Gray, Elegy. 
Red after revel, droned her lurdane knights 
Slumbering. Tennyson, Pelleas and Ettarre. 
Like the national instrument of Scotland, the mind 
drones wofully and will discourse most dolorous music, 
unless an expansive and resilient force within supplies the 
basis of quickly responsive action. Pop. Sci. Mo. , XX. 103. 
3. To use a dull, monotonous tone : as, he drones 
in his reading. 
Turn out their droning senate, and possess 
That seat of empire which our souls were fram'd for. 
Otway, Venice Preserved, ii. 3. 
Pale wizard priests, o'er occult symbols droning. 
Whittier, Worship. 
II. trans. To give forth or utter in a monot- 
onous, dull tone : as, he drones his sentences. 
I ask no organ's soulless breath 
To drone the themes of life and death. 
Whittier, The Meeting. 
And the reader droned from the pulpit, 
Like the murmur of many bees, 
The legend of good Saint Guthlac, 
And S; 
drool 
Hence 2. An idler; a sluggard; one who 
lives on the labor of others. 
I found myself a member of an active community in 
which not a di-one nor an invalid could be counted. 
IS. S. Phelps, Beyond the Gates, p. 134. 
drone 2 (dron), v. i. ; pret. and pp. droned, ppr. 
droning. [< drone 2 , n.] To live in idleness. 
Why was I not the twentieth by descent 
From a long restive race of droniny kings ? Dryden. 
drone-bass (dron'bas), .. In music, a bass 
consisting of the tonic, or of the tonic and domi- 
nant, sounded continuously throughout a piece. 
It is frequently employed for a pastoral effect. 
drone-beetle (dron'be"tl), . A beetle of the 
family Geotrypidw. 
drone-cell (drdn'sel), n. One of those cells of 
a honeycomb which are destined for the larvee 
of male bees. The eggs are laid in these at a 
later period than in the worker-cells. 
drone-fly (dron'fll), n. A dipterous insect or 
fly of the family Syrpntdce, Eristalis tenax: so 
called from its resemblance to a drone bee. 
drone-pipe (dron'pip), n. 1. A pipe produ- 
cing a droning sound ; hence, poetically, the 
droning hum of an insect. 
You fell at once into a lower key 
That's worse the drone-pipe of a humble-bee. 
CoiVper, Conversation, 1. 330. 
Specifically 2. The largest tube of a bagpipe, 
which produces the droning sound ; the drone. 
drongo (drong'go), n. 1. A name given byLe 
Vaillant, in the form drongeur, to a South Afri- 
can bird afterward known as the musical dron- 
go, Dicrurus musicus; then extended to the 
numerous African, Asiatic, and East Indian 
fly-catching crow-like birds with long forked 
tails which compose the family Dicruridai. 
Drongo (Buchariga atra}. 
They are also called drongo-slirikes. The Bu- 
clianga atra of India and the further East is an 
example. 2. [cap.] [NL.] The generic name 
of a Madagascan species usually known as Di- 
crurus or Edolhts forfieatus. In this sense the 
quasi-Latin form Drongus is found. 
Dormouse Phalanger (Dromicia nana}. 
to some extent in appearance ; some have a length of only 
3 or 4 inches, with the tail about as long. The genus is 
technically characterized by having only three true molars 
above and below, and an incipient parachute ; it is most 
nearly related to the pygmy petaurists, or small flying- 
phalangers, such as Belidetis and Acrobates. 
Dromidse (drom'i-de), n. pi. [NL.] Same as 
Dromadidie. 
Dromiidae (dro-mi'i-de), n. pi. [NL., < Dro- 
mia + -idce.~\ A family of brachyurous or ano- 
murous decapodous crustaceans, the sponge- 
crabs, having remarkably large chelw : a tran- 
sitional group between the Brackyura and the 
Macrura. 
dromoi, n. Plural of dromos. 
dromont, dromondt, . [< ME. dromoun, dro- 
mond, dromund, dromande, drowmund, etc., = 
MLG. dragemunt (assimilated to MLG. dragen, 
draw), < OF. dromon, dromont, later dromant, a 
small and swift vessel, < LL. dromo(n-), < LGr. 
8p6[ujv, a light vessel, dromond, < Gr. 6p6/iof, 
a running, < Spa/jieiv, run : see dromedary.] A 
large, fast-sailing war-vessel ; hence, a similar 
vessel of any kind. Also dromedary. 
Whan at Hampton he made the great dromons, 
Which passed other great ships of all the commons. 
HaMuyt's Voyages, I. 205. 
Roger de Hoveden ... and Peter de Longtoft celebrate 
the struggle which Richard I., ... on his way to Pales- 
tine, had with a huge dromon. . . . This vessel had three 
masts, was very high out of the water, and is said to have 
had 1500 men on board. Encyc. Brit., VII. 310. 
drone 1 (dron), . [< drone 1 , v.] 1. A monoto- 
nous, continued tone or sound; a humming: as, 
the drone of a bee. 
I am as melancholy as ... the drone of a Lincolnshire 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., i. 2. 
If men should ever bee thumming the drone of one 
* ll would 
2. I-a. music: (a) A pipe in the bagpipe which 
gives out a continuous and invariable tone. 
The harmony of them that pipe in recorders, flutes, and 
drones. Ep. Bale, Select Works, p. 536. 
(6) A drone-bass. 
drone 2 (dron), n. [Early mod. E. also droane; 
< ME. drone, drane, < AS. dran, also drain = 
OLG. dran, MLG. drane, drone, LG. drone (> G. 
drohne, and prob. Dan. drone = Icel. drjoni, a 
drone ; cf. Sw. dronare, a drone, lit. ' droner') ; 
akin to OHG. treno, MHG. trene, tren, G. dial. 
(Sax., Austr.) trehne, trene, a drone. Cf. Lith. 
tranni, Gr. (Lacon.) dpdrva^, a drone, rcvOpr/vn, 
Tevdpnouv, a kind of wasp or bee, avSprjvri, avBpn- 
3&v, a hornet or wasp (see Anthremts); all appar. 
ult. from the imitative root of drone 1 , v.] 1. The 
male of the honey-bee. It is smaller than the queen 
bee, but larger than the working bee. The drones make 
no honey, but after living a few weeks and impregnating 
the queen they are killed or driven from the hive by the 
workers. See bee^. 
I would be loath 
To be a burden, or feed like a drone 
On the industrious labour of the bee. 
Beau, and FL, Honest Man's Fortune, iii. 1. 
If once he [Love] lose his Sting, he grows a Drone. 
Cowley, The Mistress, Against Fruition. 
All with united force combine to drive 
The lazy drones from the laborious hive. 
Dryden, ^Eneid, i. 
Nepal. 
drongO-shrike (drong'go-shrik), n. Same as 
drongo, 1. 
dronish (dro'nish), a. [< drone? + -is)i^.] Like 
a drone; lazy; indolent; inactive. 
The dronish monks, the scorn and shame of manhood. 
Rowe. 
dronishly (dro'nish-li), adv. In a dronish man- 
dronishness (dro'nish-nes), n. The state of be- 
ing dronish. 
dronkt. An obsolete (Middle English) form of 
drank and of drunk. 
dronkelewt, a. and n. See drunkelew. 
dronkent. An obsolete (Middle English) form 
of drunken. 
dronklet, v. [ME. dronklen for *drunklen, freq. 
of drinken, pp. drunken, dronken, drink: see 
drink, drunk, and cf. drinkle.] I. trans. To 
drench; drown. 
II. intrans. To drown. Robert of Brunne, tr. 
of Langtoft's Chron. (ed. Hearne), p. 106, etc. 
dronte (dron'te), n. [< D. dronte = Dan. dronte, 
dodo. See dodo.] A name of the dodo. 
drony (dro'ni), a. [< drone 2 + -y 1 .] Like a 
drone; dronish; sluggish. Johnson, [Bare.] 
drook, v . t. See drouk. 
drooket, p. a. See droukit. 
drool (drol), v. i. [E. dial., also written droul ; 
a contr. of driven, q. v.] To slaver, as an in- 
fant; drivel; drop saliva. [Prov. Eng., and 
common in the United States.] 
There the slave-holder finds the chief argument for his 
ownership of men, and in Africa or New England kidnaps 
the weak, his mouth drooling with texts. 
Theodore Parker, in Dean, p. 159. 
