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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DRONE, n.¹ Sc. usages. Also †dron.

†1. (1) A bagpipe. Obs. since 16th cent. in Eng. In the sense of the bass pipe of a bagpipe the word is still in gen. use in Eng.Sc. 1826 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1855) I. 120:
Just suppose a Heelan bagpipe gane mad, and broken out of the mad-house, pursued by a dizzen keepers . . . and the Distracted Drone loupin' intil No. 17 Princes Street.Bch. 1832 W. Scott Poems 62:
Or how aul' Tubal Cain made his pipes; Gin they were bellows thumpers, or the Highlan' dron.Ayr. 1787 Burns When Guilford Good ix.:
An' Caledon threw by the drone, An' did her whittle draw, man.Ayr. 1834 M. Porteous Souter Johnny (1858) 30:
An' sit an' smirk, an' hotch, an' swear, An' blaw the drone.

(2) In a set of bagpipes, an adjustable cylindrical tube in sections, sounding a continuous fixed note to accompany the melody played on the chanter.Sc. c. 1760 Joseph MacDonald ed. Roderick D. Cannon Joseph MacDonald's Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe (c.1760) (1994) 97:
Besides the smaller Drones of the Highland Bagpipe (two in number) there was, and still is, in use, with the Pipers in the North Highlands particularly, a great Drone, double the Length and Thickness of the smaller, and in sound, just an octave below them, which adds vastly to its grandeur, both in sound and show. Sc. 1988 Roderick D. Cannon The Highland Bagpipe and its Music (1990) 1:
Most bagpipes are in fact more elaborate than the simple one-chanter-and-one-drone variety. Some have two, three or even four drones. In some the drones point upwards, over the player's shoulder, but in others they are fitted parallel to the chanter, pointing downwards.Sc. 2004 Hugh Cheape in Robert Wallace Piping Times Vol. 57 No. 2 17:
Among a range of measurable elements, higher amplitude drone harmonics at lower frequencies offer pointers to the fundamental importance of the bass drone in the Great Highland Bagpipe and its essential antiquity among the different elements making up the instrument.

†2. A monotonous or drawling speaker.Abd. 1828 “J. Ruddiman” Tales and Sk. 274:
I have mair skeel than your ain regular drones (confound them!) to act as your shepherd.Ayr. 1786 Burns Ordination x.:
Mu'trie and you were just a match, We never had sic twa drones.

3. A drawling way of speaking (Ork. 1975). Hence droner, see quot. Fif. 1957:
The folk o St Monance hae an awfu drone. We ca them the St Monance droners.