Word Direct Answers

What does "drum" mean?

Drum: 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.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Zoöl.) See Drumfish.
  2. 3.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. 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.
  3. 4.A tea party; a kettledrum. G. Eliot. Bass drum. See in the Vocabulary. -- Double drum. See under Double.
  4. 5.To beat a drum with sticks; to beat or play a tune on a drum.
  5. 6.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.
  6. 7.To throb, as the heart. [R.] Dryden.
  7. 8.To go about, as a drummer does, to gather recruits, to draw or secure partisans, customers, etc,; -- with for.
  8. 9.To execute on a drum, as a tune.
  9. 10.(With out) To expel ignominiously, with beat of drum; as, to drum out a deserter or rogue from a camp, etc.
  10. 11.(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.

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