Bass drum Mus. The largest of the different kinds of drums, having two heads, and emitting a deep, grave sound. See Bass, a.

 ◄ ►


 Drum n.
 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.
    The drums cry bud-a-dub.   --Gascoigne.
 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.
 3. Zool. See Drumfish.
 4. 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.   --Smollett.
 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.
 5. A tea party; a kettledrum.
 Bass drum. See in the Vocabulary.
 Double drum. See under Double.


 bass drum
      n : a large drum with two heads; makes a sound of indefinite but
          very low pitch [syn: gran casa]