drum

Pluraldrums

Formsdrums, drumming, drummed

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A percussion instrument with a thin skin stretched over a hollow body, struck to produce sound; a membranophone.

   He tightened the skin on his drum before the concert.

   A steady beat on the drum kept the dancers in time.

   Note

   The instrument every other drum is named after, and a borrowing: English took it either by shortening drumslade, "drummer", from Middle Dutch trommelslach "drumbeat", or directly from a word like Middle Dutch tromme. Players speak of playing the drums, in the plural, for a whole set. In slang they call them skins, after the struck membrane that makes it a membranophone.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A large cylindrical container, like a barrel, used for transporting and storing liquids.

   Workers loaded each drum of diesel onto the truck.

   The warehouse held hundreds of steel drums full of solvent.

   Similarbarrel, canister

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A hollow, cylindrical object shaped like a barrel, especially a rotating part in a machine.

   The winch drum slowly reeled in the anchor chain.

   Each drum on the printing press rotated at a fixed speed.

   Similarcylinder, roller, barrel

4. 4
   nouncolloquialcountable

   The lower leg of a cooked bird such as chicken or turkey; a drumstick.

   She seasoned each drum before tossing them on the grill.

   Roast turkey drums are always the first to disappear at dinner.

   Similardrumstick, leg

   Note

   A clipping of drumstick, and a kitchen word above all: recipes call for chicken drums or drums and thighs. The bird is usually named in front, since the bare word could point to the instrument. Drumstick remains the neutral term at the table and in careful writing. The short form suits ingredient lists.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To play a drum by striking it, especially in steady rhythm.

   The performers drummed steadily as the procession passed.

   Children drum on anything within reach.

   Similarbeat, pound

6. 6
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To strike repeatedly with a rapid succession of blows.

   His fingers drummed nervously against the armrest.

   Hailstones drum on the rooftops throughout the night.

   Similartap, rap, beat, pound, patter

   Note

   Here the instrument has dropped away and only the rhythm remains: fingers and wings can drum as well as sticks. The verb works both ways. You drum your fingers, or your fingers drum on the table, and the intransitive use often takes on. Washington Irving, in 1824, has a man drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair. The ruffed grouse beating its wings sits close to animals' drumming sounds.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To fix something in the memory by repeated drilling or review.

   Her instructor drummed the safety checklist into every recruit.

   Good tutors drum the multiplication tables into students until they're automatic.

   Similardrill, hammer, instill

   Note

   The construction carries the meaning: you drum something into someone, or into their head, and the object is the lesson, not the learner. The participle can also stand before a noun. Pat M. Kuras, writing in Gay Community News in 1978, speaks of "drummed in prejudice," meaning belief installed by repetition rather than by argument.

8. 8
   verbintransitive

   To throb with a strong, steady beat, as the heart does.

   His heart drummed wildly as he opened the letter.

   After sprinting, you can feel your heart drum against your ribs.

   Similarpound, thump, throb, hammer, beat

   Note

   A figurative use in which the body becomes the instrument and the heartbeat its rhythm. Dryden's Don Sebastian (1690) addresses the organ directly: "Now, heart, … thou shalt drum no more." The tone is literary and charged with feeling. It suits fear, exertion or excitement, the moments when a person becomes aware of their own pulse.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   To produce a vocal or mechanical sound resembling drumming, as various animals do.

   Ruffed grouse drum by beating their wings rapidly against the air.

   The fish drummed using muscles attached to its swim bladder.

   Note

   The animals that drum mostly do it without a voice. The ruffed grouse beats its wings, and the drumfish vibrates muscle against its swim bladder, the sound behind the fish's name. Country lore listened for it too. In Asbjørnsen's Folk and Fairy Tales, translated by H. L. Brækstad (1886), a speaker hears "the snipe drumming also" and promises fine weather.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    The encircling wall that supports a dome or cupola, often raising it above the main structure.

    The architect pierced the drum with windows to flood the dome with light.

    A circular drum raises the cupola high above the crossing.

    Note

    Architects name the dome's support by its shape: a ring of wall, round or polygonal, that lifts the dome or cupola clear of the mass below. Because it stands free, it is the natural place for windows. That is why a domed interior can seem lit from its base. Keep it distinct from a section of a column, the other masonry drum.

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