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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



... summit, halting at times to peer up through the wild whirls of spray at the veiled grandeur of the fall, or to listen to the thunder beneath me; the whole hill was sounding as if it were a huge, bellowing drum. I hoped that by waiting until the fall was blown aslant I should be able to climb to the lip of the crater and get a view of the interior; but a suffocating blast, half air, half water, followed ...
— The Yosemite • John Muir
... a Salvation Army man as come and asked me if I accepted the Gospel. 'Yes, my lad,' I sez; 'I've accepted it—but only as a thing to smoke, not as a thing to go bangin' about. Put your drum in the cup-board, my lad,' I sez; 'and put the Gospel in your pipe, and you'll be ...
— Mad Shepherds - and Other Human Studies • L. P. Jacks
... been strange and alarming. Confound the moth! and Pawkins! However, it was a pity to lose the moth now. He felt his way into the hall and found the matches, after sending his hat down upon the floor with a noise like a drum. With the lighted candle he returned to the sitting-room. No moth was to be seen. Yet once for a moment it seemed that the thing was fluttering round his head. Hapley very suddenly decided to give up the moth and ...
— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells
... leased an expensive suite at an apartment hotel near the Fabians, and much to little Mr. Alexander's joy, although much to Mrs. Alexander's disgust, they settled down to a hum-drum life that winter. She sighed as she referred to ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... stop over the center of Penguin Deep where we were to gamble our lives in a game with Neptune. Sea anchors were rigged to lessen our drift and the donkey engine was geared to the first cable drum. ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 • Various


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