drumming

Pluraldrummings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of striking a drum to produce sound or rhythm.

   The drumming during the festival lasted well into the night.

   Years of drumming had given her remarkable wrist strength.

   Similarpercussion

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of drum.

   He kept drumming on the steering wheel while waiting at the light.

   Drumming his heels against the floor, the boy waited for class to end.

   Note

   One spelling, two verbal jobs. With a form of be it makes the progressive (he was drumming), and as a gerund it names the action while still taking an object, as in drumming his heels. That object is the test against the plain noun, which takes an article or of instead. The verb's canvassing sense survives here too, always with for: drumming for recruits, customers or partisans.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A sound that resembles a drum being beaten.

   The drumming of heavy rain drowned out our conversation.

   A low drumming of distant thunder rolled across the valley.

   Similarpounding, beating, pattering, rumble, thrumming

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   In many catfish species, the sound made when specialized sonic muscles contract and reverberate through the swim bladder.

   Researchers recorded the drumming of channel catfish during the spawning season.

   The drumming intensified whenever another fish approached the nest.

   Note

   No drum is struck here, and nothing is beaten. The sound is muscular: specialized sonic muscles contract, and the swim bladder carries the reverberation. The word names the effect rather than the action, much as the drumming of rain does. The verb follows the same logic, since various animals are said to drum when they make a sound that resembles drumming.

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