Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a tedious, unpleasant person.

1658		R. Brathwait Age for Apes 173: Yea in the Academie I observ’d Those Drones enjoy best roomes who least deserv’d.
1702		Vanbrugh False Friend Act III: Not that the Blockheads Charms have mov’d me, but [...] my Reputation’s at stake upon’t, and I must Rouze the Drone some how.
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford II i: Unmannerly! [...] why he is a Fellow of a College; that is to say, a Rude, Hoggish, Proud, Pedantick, Gormandizing Drone – a dreaming dull Sot.
1754		J. Gay Rehearsal at Goatham Dramatis Personae: Women. [...] Mrs Drone.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 78: But with Doldrums be asey, they’re all boderation; / To the one that had hipp’d all your frenchified drones.
c.1805		‘The Bottle’ Jovial Songster 50: Full bumpers the dullest of drones will make merry.
1853		H. Hayman Pawnbroker’s Daughter 61: The sharp youth had gleaned suspicions of his father’s intentions, from a paternal sarcasm here and there dropped against dons and drones, and the manufacture of divines out of dunces.
1943		‘Whitman College Sl.’ AS XVIII:2 Apr. 154/1: drizzle puss, drone, drool, drip. These vulgar monosyllables are applied to anyone not up to par socially.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 47: You’re a drone, you dear little choir-boy [...] A droning little Abbey drone.
1960		Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing 33: At the Drones Club and other places I am accustomed to frequent you will often hear comment.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 109: Drone A person who studies a great deal.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 233: Someday, Bloodworth hoped, one of these drones would call with a hot tip.
1996		P. Cornwell Cause of Death (1997) 218: Her and the drone with the big car with leather seats.

2. a low-echelon drug dealer.

1990

M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 127: Darry was a drone [...] He worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, hawking crack.