drom11dæ

pl. [Mod. Lat. dromi (a); Lat. fem. adj. pl. suff. -ide.] Zool.: A family of Anomurous Crustaceans, of which Dromia is the type. *drom-ond, *drom-ande, *drom-oun, *dromounde, *drowm-und, *drowm-ound, s. [O. Fr. dromont, dromon; Icel. drómundr , from Lat. dromo , from Gr. dromon =alight sailing ve el, from dromos = a running: dramein , 2 aor. inf in. of trecho =to run.] Properly a light, swift-sailing ve el, but used for a ve el of any kind. "That comen by schip other dromouns." A lisa under, 90. IMG:content-0559.png:[blocks in formation] II. Technically: 1. Music: (1) The monotonous ba produced from the Jarger of the three pipes of bagpipes. As there are no governing holes in the drone, the sound it gives forth serves as a continuous ba to any melody; the pipe second in size is tuned to give out the fifth above the drone; and the smaller pipe, called the chanter, has ventages by which the melody is made. [BAGPIPES.] ( Stainer & Barrett.) (2) A name given to the three lower pipes of the bagpipe, which each emit only a single tone; usually two octaves of the key-note D, and the fifth A. They are distinguished from the chanter, which has the power of producing a melodious succe ion of notes. (Grove.) (3) The chorus or burden of a song. (4) The term has been transferred to continuous ba in a composition, usually of a pastoral kind. (Growe.) Also called Drone-ba . 2. Entom .: The male of the honey-bee, Apis nellifica , which makes no honey, its sole use being to fecundate the queen-bee. [BEE (1).] drone-ba , 8. [DRONE, 8, II. 1 (4).] drone-bee, 8. [DRONE, 8., II. 2.] drone-fly, 8. Entom.: A dipterous fly, Eristalis tenax , resembling the drone-bee. drone-pipe, s. 1. The drone of a bagpipe. [DRONE, 8. II. 1 (1).) Any instrument which emits a droning sound. "Here while his canting drone- pipe scanned The mystic figures of her hand, He tipples palmestry, and dines On all her fortune-telling lines."- Cleveland . 2. The droning of any insect. "You fall at once into a lower key, That's worse the drone - pipe of an humble-bee." Cowper: Conversation , 329, 330.