Your ShelfYour Projects
Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Drum

Drŭm, n.

noun

n. [O. Eng. drumme, D. trom, trommel, L. Ger. trumme, H. Ger. trommel, Dan. tromme, Sw. trumma, Icel. trumba; O. H. Ger. trumba, a trumpet; O. Sax. drom, noise; A-S. dryme, dreám, joy, gladness, song, music, instrument of music; Goth. drunjus, a sound.]

  1. (Mus.) An instrument of music, consisting of a hollow cylinder or hemisphere, upon which a piece of vellum is stretched, to be beaten with a stick; — the common instrument of marking time in martial music.
  2. (Mil.) One who plays upon a drum; a drummer.
  3. Any thing 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 stove-pipe. (b.) A small cylindrical box in which figs, &c., are packed. (c.) (Anat.) The tympanum or barrel of the ear, an irregular cavity constituting the middle portion. Dunglison. (d.) (Arch.) The upright part of a cupola, either above or below a dome; also, the bell-formed part of the Corinthian and composite capitals. Weale. (e.) (Mech.) A short cylinder revolving on an axis, generally for the purpose of turning several small wheels, by means of straps passing round its periphery; — called also pulley, and rigger, when very short in the direction of the axis, so as to have the form of a disk.
  4. (Ichth.) A genus of fishes (Pogonias), of which but two species are known, which have the power to make a peculiar drumming or grunting sound under water. The American species (P. chromis) is found along the coasts of Georgia and Florida, especially in the winter and spring; — called also drum-fish. Baird.
  5. A noisy, riotous assembly of fashionable people at a private house; a rout.

☞ “Not unaptly styled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment.” Smollett. There were also drum-major, rout, tempest, and hurricane, differing only in degrees of multitude and uproar, as the significant name of each declares.

An upright cylindrical drum with drumsticks lying in front of it.
Drum.

Drŭm, v. i.

verbintransitive

[imp. & p. p. DRUMMED; p. pr. & vb. n. 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. “Drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair.”

W. Irving.

  1. To beat, as the heart; to throb. Dryden.
  2. To go about, as a drummer does, to gather recruits, to secure partisans, customers, &c.;—with for.

Drūm, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. To execute on a drum, as a tune;—with out, to expel with beat of drum; as, to drum out a deserter or rogue from a camp, &c.;—with up, to assemble by beat of drum; to gather; to collect; as, to drum up recruits, &c.;—hence, also, without up, to solicit custom by personal application to sellers or buyers; as, to drum customers.