%drum%

n. [ Origin unknown. ] 1. A kind of riddle based upon some fanciful or fantastic resemblance between things quite unlike; a puzzling question, of which the answer is or involves a pun. [ 1913 Webster ]

Or pun ambiguous, or conundrum quaint. J. Philips. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A question to which only a conjectural answer can be made. [ 1913 Webster ]

Do you think life is long enough to let me speculate on conundrums like that? W. Black. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ Cf. Gael. doltrum grief, vexation? ] A part of the ocean near the equator, abounding in calms, squalls, and light, baffling winds, which sometimes prevent all progress for weeks; -- so called by sailors. [ 1913 Webster ]

To be in the doldrums, to be in a state of listlessness ennui, or tedium. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The drums cry bud-a-dub. Gascoigne. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) See Drumfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A noisy, tumultuous assembly of fashionable people at a private house; a rout. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Not unaptly styled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment. Smollett. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ There were also drum major, rout, tempest, and hurricane, differing only in degrees of multitude and uproar, as the significant name of each declares. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A tea party; a kettledrum. G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bass drum. See in the Vocabulary. --
Double drum. See under Double. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Drumming with his fingers on the arm of his chair. W. Irving. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To throb, as the heart. [ R. ] Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To go about, as a drummer does, to gather recruits, to draw or secure partisans, customers, etc, ; -- with for. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To execute on a drum, as a tune. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (With out) To expel ignominiously, with beat of drum; as, to drum out a deserter or rogue from a camp, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The sound of a beaten drum; drum music. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whose morning drumbeat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. D. Webster. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ See Drumly. ] 1. To be sluggish or lazy; to be confused. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To mumble in speaking. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) Any fish of the family Sciænidæ, which makes a loud noise by means of its air bladder; -- called also drum. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The common drumfish (Pogonias chromis) is a large species, common south of New Jersey. The southern red drum or red horse (Sciæna ocellata), and the fresh-water drum or croaker (Aplodionotus grunniens), are related species. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The parchment or skin stretched over one end of a drum. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The top of a capstan which is pierced with sockets for levers used in turning it. See Illust. of Capstan. [ 1913 Webster ]

Drumhead court-martial (Mil.), a summary court-martial called to try offenses on the battlefield or the line of march, when, sometimes, a drumhead has to do service as a writing table. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Gael. druim the ridge of a hill. ] (Geol.) A hill of compact, unstratified, glacial drift or till, usually elongate or oval, with the larger axis parallel to the former local glacial motion. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. Droumy. ] Turbid; muddy. [ Scot. & Obs. or Prov. Eng. ] Wodroephe (1623). Burns. [ 1913 Webster ]

def>. 1. The chief or first drummer of a regiment; an instructor of drummers. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The marching leader of a military band. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A noisy gathering. [ R. ] See under Drum, n., 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One whose office is to best the drum, as in military exercises and marching. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who solicits custom; a commercial traveler. [ Colloq. U.S. ] Bartlett. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) A fish that makes a sound when caught; as: (a) The squeteague. (b) A California sculpin. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) A large West Indian cockroach (Blatta gigantea) which drums on woodwork, as a sexual call. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of beating upon, or as if upon, a drum; also, the noise which the male of the ruffed grouse makes in spring, by beating his wings upon his sides. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ From Thomas Drummond, a British naval officer. ] A very intense light, produced by turning two streams of gas, one oxygen and the other hydrogen, or coal gas, in a state of ignition, upon a ball of lime; or a stream of oxygen gas through a flame of alcohol upon a ball or disk of lime; -- called also oxycalcium light, or lime light. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The name is also applied sometimes to a heliostat, invented by Drummond, for rendering visible a distant point, as in geodetic surveying, by reflecting upon it a beam of light from the sun. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A stick with which a drum is beaten. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything resembling a drumstick in form; -- applied especially to the tibiotarsus, or second joint, of the leg of a fowl, when cooked and served at the table. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

. (Elec.) A method of armature winding in which the wire is wound upon the outer surface of a cylinder or drum from end to end of the cylinder; -- distinguished from ring winding, etc. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Anat.) The tympanum. See Illust. of Ear. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Monotonous; dull; commonplace. “A humdrum crone.” Bryant. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A dull fellow; a bore. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Monotonous and tedious routine. [ 1913 Webster ]

Dissatisfied with humdrum. The Nation. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A low cart with three wheels, drawn by one horse.

n. 1. (Mus.) A drum made of thin copper in the form of a hemispherical kettle, with parchment stretched over the mouth of it. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Kettledrums, in pairs, were formerly used in martial music for cavalry, but are now chiefly confined to orchestras, where they are called tympani. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An informal social party at which a light collation is offered, held in the afternoon or early evening. Cf. Drum, n., 4 and 5. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who plays on a kettledrum. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ NL. See Quadrumane. ] (Zool.) A division of the Primates comprising the apes and monkeys; -- so called because the hind foot is usually prehensile, and the great toe opposable somewhat like a thumb. Formerly the Quadrumana were considered an order distinct from the Bimana, which last included man alone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. quattuor four + manus a hand: cf. F. quadrumane. ] (Zool.) One of the Quadrumana. [ 1913 Webster ]