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. [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; 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.
W.
Irving. 3. To throb, as the
heart. [R.]
Dryden.
4. To go about, as a drummer does, to gather recruits, to draw or secure partisans, customers, etc,; -- with for.
Drum (?), n. [Cf. D. trom, trommel,
LG. trumme, G. trommel, Dan. tromme,
Sw. trumma, OHG. trumba a trumpet, Icel. pruma a clap of thunder, and as a verb, to thunder, Dan. drum a booming sound, drumme to boom; prob. partly at least of imitative origin; perh. akin to E.
trum, or trumpet.]
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.
Gascoigne.
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. (Zoöl.) 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.
Smollett. &fist; 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. G.
Eliot.
Bass drum. See in the Vocabulary. -- Double drum. See under Double.
Hear it pronounced