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Drum   /drəm/   Listen
noun
Drum  n.  
1.
(Mus.) An instrument of percussion, consisting either of a hollow cylinder, over each end of which is stretched a piece of skin or vellum, to be beaten with a stick; or of a metallic hemisphere (kettledrum) with a single piece of skin to be so beaten; the common instrument for marking time in martial music; one of the pair of tympani in an orchestra, or cavalry band. "The drums cry bud-a-dub."
2.
Anything resembling a drum in form; as:
(a)
A sheet iron radiator, often in the shape of a drum, for warming an apartment by means of heat received from a stovepipe, or a cylindrical receiver for steam, etc.
(b)
A small cylindrical box in which figs, etc., are packed.
(c)
(Anat.) The tympanum of the ear; often, but incorrectly, applied to the tympanic membrane.
(d)
(Arch.) One of the cylindrical, or nearly cylindrical, blocks, of which the shaft of a column is composed; also, a vertical wall, whether circular or polygonal in plan, carrying a cupola or dome.
(e)
(Mach.) A cylinder on a revolving shaft, generally for the purpose of driving several pulleys, by means of belts or straps passing around its periphery; also, the barrel of a hoisting machine, on which the rope or chain is wound.
3.
(Zool.) See Drumfish.
4.
A noisy, tumultuous assembly of fashionable people at a private house; a rout. (Archaic) "Not unaptly styled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment." Note: There were also drum major, rout, tempest, and hurricane, differing only in degrees of multitude and uproar, as the significant name of each declares.
5.
A tea party; a kettledrum.
Bass drum. See in the Vocabulary.
Double drum. See under Double.


verb
Drum  v. t.  
1.
To execute on a drum, as a tune.
2.
(With out) To expel ignominiously, with beat of drum; as, to drum out a deserter or rogue from a camp, etc.
3.
(With up) To assemble by, or as by, beat of drum; to collect; to gather or draw by solicitation; as, to drum up recruits; to drum up customers.


Drum  v. i.  (past & past part. drummed; pres. part. drumming)  
1.
To beat a drum with sticks; to beat or play a tune on a drum.
2.
To beat with the fingers, as with drumsticks; to beat with a rapid succession of strokes; to make a noise like that of a beaten drum; as, the ruffed grouse drums with his wings. "Drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair."
3.
To throb, as the heart. (R.)
4.
To go about, as a drummer does, to gather recruits, to draw or secure partisans, customers, etc,; with for.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Drum" Quotes from Famous Books



... chagrin. On returning from one of my rambles, I found the flower upon the floor, crushed by some spiteful heel? Was it thy heel, Caroline Kipp? In its place was a bunch of hideous gilly-flowers and yellow daffodils, of the dimensions of a drum-head cabbage—placed there either to mock my regard, or elicit my admiration! In either case, I resolved upon a revanche. By its wound, the bignonia smelt sweeter than ever; and though I could not restore the pretty blossom to its graceful campanulate shape, ...
— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid
... by the hundred. Some even proposed to ring the church bells and fire the cannon at the harbour's mouth; but the ringers and artillerymen preferred to come and see the sight. As it was, the "George" floated proudly from the church tower, and the Fife and Drum Temperance Band stood ready at the corner of East Street. All Troy, in fact, ...
— The Astonishing History of Troy Town • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... a dull roll of the drum; and, suddenly, in the near silence, a hoarse voice barked out ...
— The Frontier • Maurice LeBlanc
... moment in his own the hand of the girl whose father he had killed. It was lifeless and cold. Her lips moved, merely speaking his name. His own were mute. McDowell was saying something about the glory of the service and the sovereignty of the law. And then, breaking in like the beat of a drum on the introduction, his voice demanded, ...
— The River's End • James Oliver Curwood
... Murdoch had three illegitimate sons. One of them was called Hector or Eachainn Biorach. He acquired the lands of Drumnamarg by marrying Helen, daughter of Loban or Logan of Drum-namarg, who, according to the Earl of Cromarty, "was one of the Earl of Ross's feuars. This superior having an innate enmity with Kenneth's race, was the cause that this Hector had no peaceable possession of Drumnamarg, but turning outlaw, retired to Eddirachillis, ...
— History Of The Mackenzies • Alexander Mackenzie


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