DRUM (drummed, drumming)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: drummed    , drumming   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does drum mean? 

• DRUM (noun)
  The noun DRUM has 6 senses:

1. a musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a hollow cylinder with a membrane stretched across each end

2. the sound of a drum

3. a bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends

4. a cylindrical metal container used for shipping or storage of liquids

5. a hollow cast iron cylinder attached to the wheel that forms part of the brakes

6. small to medium-sized bottom-dwelling food and game fishes of shallow coastal and fresh waters that make a drumming noise

  Familiarity information: DRUM used as a noun is common.

• DRUM (verb)
  The verb DRUM has 3 senses:

1. make a rhythmic sound

2. play a percussion instrument

3. study intensively, as before an exam

  Familiarity information: DRUM used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DRUM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a hollow cylinder with a membrane stretched across each end

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

drum; membranophone; tympan

Hypernyms ("drum" is a kind of...):

percussion instrument; percussive instrument (a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another)

Meronyms (parts of "drum"):

drumhead; head (a membrane that is stretched taut over a drum)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "drum"):

bass drum; gran casa (a large drum with two heads; makes a sound of indefinite but very low pitch)

bongo; bongo drum (a small drum; played with the hands)

side drum; snare; snare drum (a small drum with two heads and a snare stretched across the lower head)

tabor; tabour (a small drum with one head of soft calfskin)

tambour (a drum)

tambourine (a shallow drum with a single drumhead and with metallic disks in the sides)

tenor drum; tom-tom (any of various drums with small heads)

timbrel (small hand drum similar to a tambourine; formerly carried by itinerant jugglers)

Derivation:

drum (play a percussion instrument)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The sound of a drum

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

he could hear the drums before he heard the fifes

Hypernyms ("drum" is a kind of...):

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Derivation:

drum (play a percussion instrument)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

barrel; drum

Hypernyms ("drum" is a kind of...):

cylinder (a surface generated by rotating a parallel line around a fixed line)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A cylindrical metal container used for shipping or storage of liquids

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

drum; metal drum

Hypernyms ("drum" is a kind of...):

vessel (an object used as a container (especially for liquids))

Sense 5

Meaning:

A hollow cast iron cylinder attached to the wheel that forms part of the brakes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

brake drum; drum

Hypernyms ("drum" is a kind of...):

cylinder (a surface generated by rotating a parallel line around a fixed line)

Holonyms ("drum" is a part of...):

drum brake (hydraulic brake in which friction is applied to the inside of a spinning drum by the brake shoe)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Small to medium-sized bottom-dwelling food and game fishes of shallow coastal and fresh waters that make a drumming noise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

drum; drumfish

Hypernyms ("drum" is a kind of...):

sciaenid; sciaenid fish (widely distributed family of carnivorous percoid fishes having a large air bladder used to produce sound)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "drum"):

Equetus pulcher; striped drum (a kind of drumfish)

Equetus lanceolatus; jackknife-fish (black-and-white drumfish with an erect elongated dorsal fin)

Bairdiella chrysoura; mademoiselle; silver perch (small silvery drumfish often mistaken for white perch; found along coasts of United States from New York to Mexico)

channel bass; red drum; redfish; Sciaenops ocellatus (large edible fish found off coast of United States from Massachusetts to Mexico)

• DRUM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they drum    ... he / she / it drums   
Past simple: drummed   
Past participle: drummed   
-ing form: drumming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a rhythmic sound

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

beat; drum; thrum

Context example:

The drums beat all night

Hypernyms (to "drum" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Verb group:

beat (indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

drummer (someone who plays a drum)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Play a percussion instrument

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "drum" is one way to...):

play (perform music on (a musical instrument))

Domain category:

music (musical activity (singing or whistling etc.))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

drum (a musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a hollow cylinder with a membrane stretched across each end)

drum (the sound of a drum)

drummer (someone who plays a drum)

drumming (the act of playing drums)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Study intensively, as before an exam

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

bone; bone up; cram; drum; get up; grind away; mug up; swot; swot up

Context example:

I had to bone up on my Latin verbs before the final exam

Hypernyms (to "drum" is one way to...):

hit the books; study (learn by reading books)

Verb group:

cram (prepare (students) hastily for an impending exam)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something PP

 Context examples 

A part of the ear canal that is external to the ear drum.

(External Acoustic Meatus, NCI Thesaurus)

It was as though, somewhere, a piano were playing and the actual notes were impinging on his ear-drums.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I am confident that all the drums and trumpets of a royal army, beating and sounding together just at your ears, could not equal it.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A dosing unit equal to the amount of active ingredient(s) contained in a drum.

(Drum Dosing Unit, NCI Thesaurus)

The use of a spinning filter mounted in a drum periphery to purify a slurry.

(Centrifugal Filtration, NCI Thesaurus)

"Drums," said Lord John, carelessly; "war drums. I have heard them before."

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the fisherman went home; and as he came close to the palace he saw a troop of soldiers, and heard the sound of drums and trumpets.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Then it came to him that it was the grocer's bill, and that these were his bills flying around on the drum of the mangle.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

For a day at a time he would lie in the underbrush where he could watch the partridges drumming and strutting up and down.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

That part of the ear canal external to the ear drum

(Murine External Auditory Canal, NCI Thesaurus)