drone vs rout

drone

noun
  • A humming or deep murmuring sound. 

  • One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe. 

  • One who performs menial or tedious work. 

  • A person without the ability to think critically and independently, especially one who follows a group blindly; a non-player character. 

  • A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). 

  • A Toyota HiAce or a similar van, especially one used by Ugandan state agents to kidnap opposition members. 

  • A male ant, bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen. 

  • A genre of music that uses repeated lengthy droning sounds. 

  • A low-pitched hum or buzz. 

verb
  • To speak in a monotone way. 

  • To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz. 

  • To kill with a missile fired by unmanned aircraft. 

rout

noun
  • A loud shout; a bellow, a roar; also, an instance of loud and continued exclamation or shouting; a clamour, an outcry. 

  • A lowing or mooing sound by an animal, especially cattle; a bellow, a moo. 

  • The act of completely defeating an army or other enemy force, causing it to retreat in a disorganized manner; (by extension) in politics, sport, etc.: a convincing defeat; a thrashing, a trouncing. 

  • A group of (often violent) criminals or gangsters; such people as a class; (more generally) a disorderly and tumultuous crowd, a mob; hence (archaic, preceded by the), the common people as a group, the rabble. 

  • The retreat of an enemy force, etc., in this manner; also (archaic, rare), the army, enemy force, etc., so retreating. 

  • An illegal assembly of people; specifically, three or more people who have come together intending to do something illegal, and who have taken steps towards this, regarded as more serious than an unlawful assembly but not as serious as a riot; the act of assembling in this manner. 

  • A loud, resounding noise, especially one made by the sea, thunder, wind, etc.; a roar. 

  • A group of disorganized things. 

verb
  • Usually followed by from: to compel (someone) to leave a place; specifically (usually followed by out or up), to cause (someone) to get out of bed. 

  • Of a person: to speak loudly; to bellow, roar, to shout. 

  • Usually followed by out or up: of a person: to search for and find (something); also (transitive) to completely empty or clear out (something). 

  • Usually followed by out or up: to dig or pull up (a plant) by the roots; to extirpate, to uproot. 

  • Of an animal, especially a pig: to search (for something) in the ground with the snout; to root. 

  • Of a person: to say or shout (something) loudly. 

  • To make a noise; to bellow, to roar, to snort. 

  • Usually followed by out: to find and eradicate (something harmful or undesirable); to root out. 

  • Of a person: to search through belongings, a place, etc.; to rummage. 

  • To use a gouge, router, or other tool to scoop out material (from a metallic, wooden, etc., surface), forming a groove or recess. 

  • To snore, especially loudly. 

  • To completely defeat and force into disorderly retreat (an enemy force, opponent in sport, etc.). 

  • Of an animal, especially cattle: to low or moo loudly; to bellow. 

  • To dig or plough (earth or the ground); to till. 

How often have the words drone and rout occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )