BASS DRUM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Bass drum

Drum n.

(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. "The drums cry bud-a-dub."

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.

(Zool.) See Drumfish.

A noisy, tumultuous assembly of fashionable people at a private house; a rout. (Archaic) "Not unaptly styled a drum, from the noise and emptiness of the entertainment." Note: There were also drum major, rout, tempest, and hurricane, differing only in degrees of multitude and uproar, as the significant name of each declares.

A tea party; a kettledrum.

Bass drum. See in the Vocabulary.

Double drum. See under Double.