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Kettledrum   Listen
noun
Kettledrum  n.  
1.
(Mus.) A drum made of thin copper in the form of a hemispherical kettle, with parchment stretched over the mouth of it. Note: Kettledrums, in pairs, were formerly used in martial music for cavalry, but are now chiefly confined to orchestras, where they are called tympani.
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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Kettledrum" Quotes from Famous Books



... all over to himself, and cleared his throat. Then on a sudden a shutter opened high above the orchestra, a trumpet blared, the kettledrum crashed, and he heard a ...
— Master Skylark • John Bennett

... Mareschal, with a pair of enormous moustachios, amid which the mouth of his meerschaum was inserted, stood by smoking with admirable coolness, and marking the time with his cane, while a drummer tapped on his kettledrum, and four trumpeters had, each in succession, given their twenty-five lashes and withdrawn; twice had the knotted scourge been coagulated with blood, and twice had it been washed in the snow that now rose high around the feet of our champing and impatient ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various

... minister of police as bandmaster, regulating the time with the flourish of his baton: on his right is the Russian Invalid (the government organ) with a trombone, on his left the Military Gazette with a kettledrum. Immediately below, the Moscow Gazette, in the person of its celebrated chief, M. Katkoff, is playing in a reckless, haphazard fashion upon an enormous bass fiddle. Close by are the two leading comic journals, the one tinkling a triangle, the other blowing the pandean pipes. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, September, 1878 • Various

... with hands respectfully joined. Some were reading plays and beautiful poems, others danced and others performed with glittering fingers and flashing arms on various instruments —the ivory lute, the ebony pipe and the silver kettledrum. In short, all the means and appliances of pleasure and enjoyment were there; and any description of the appearance of the apartments, which were the wonder of ...
— Vikram and the Vampire • Sir Richard F. Burton

... time. If the Marvel happened to remember for a moment his miserable condition and to look unhappy, his master would look still more kindly and threaten even more sternly. Then came the moment when the orchestra stopped suddenly, and the kettledrum rolled, and the eyes of the audience were fixed upon the Marvel. For this remarkable performing man was scratching in a tub of earth to find a bone—just like a real dog; and that was his greatest trick. When he had successfully performed it, his master (the Little Wonder) ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, January 7, 1914 • Various



Words linked to "Kettledrum" :   percussive instrument, timpani, kettle, percussion instrument, tympanum, tympani



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