drum Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a hollow cylinder with a membrane stretched across each end
    tympan; membranophone.
  2. noun the sound of a drum
    • he could hear the drums before he heard the fifes
  3. noun a bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends
    barrel.
  4. noun a cylindrical metal container used for shipping or storage of liquids
    metal drum.
  5. noun a hollow cast-iron cylinder attached to the wheel that forms part of the brakes
    brake drum.
  6. noun small to medium-sized bottom-dwelling food and game fishes of shallow coastal and fresh waters that make a drumming noise
    drumfish.
  7. verb make a rhythmic sound
    beat; thrum.
    • Rain drummed against the windshield
    • The drums beat all night
  8. verb play a percussion instrument
  9. verb study intensively, as before an exam
    grind away; swot up; bone up; get up; bone; cram; mug up; swot.
    • I had to bone up on my Latin verbs before the final exam

WordNet

Drum noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  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.
    ✍ 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.
Drum intransitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Drummed ; present participle & verbal noun Drumming
Definitions
  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 transitive verb
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913