drum

n 1: a musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a

hollow cylinder with a membrane stretch across each end

[syn: {membranophone}, {tympan}]

2: the sound of a drum; "he could hear the drums before he

heard the fifes"

3: a bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends [syn: {barrel}]

4: a cylindrical metal container used for shipping or storage

of liquids [syn: {metal drum}]

5: a hollow cast-iron cylinder attached to the wheel that forms

part of the brakes [syn: {brake drum}]

6: small to medium-sized bottom-dwelling food and game fishes

of shallow coastal and fresh waters that make a drumming

noise [syn: {drumfish}]

v 1: make a rhythmic sound: "Rain drummed against the

windshield"; "The drums beat all night" [syn: {beat}, {thrum}]

2: play the drums

3: study intensively, as before an exam; "I had to bone up on

my Latin verbs before the final exam" [syn: {cram}, {grind

away}, {bone up}, {swot}, {get up}, {mug up}, {swot up}, {bone}]

drum

Ancient slow, cylindrical magnetic media that were once

state-of-the-art storage devices. Under {BSD} {Unix} the disk

partition used for swapping is still called "/dev/drum"; this

has led to considerable humour and not a few straight-faced

but utterly bogus "explanations" getting foisted on {newbie}s.

See also "{The Story of Mel}".

(1994-12-22)