KETTLEDRUM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Kettledrum

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noun

Kettledrum n.

(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.

An informal social party at which a light collation is offered, held in the afternoon or early evening. Cf. Drum, n., 4 and 5.

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Etymology of 'Kettledrum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Kettledrum" Quotes from Famous Books

... was a great kettledrum, formed like a brazen caldron, tapering to the bottom and covered with buffalo-hide—at least 3-1/2 or 4 feet in diameter. Bernier, indeed, tells of Nakkaras in use at the Court of Delhi that were not less than ...

— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... Eden when, as sometimes happened in winter, the bandmaster of the town and his colleagues, supported by a few other moderate dilettante players, gave a concert, and I, owing to the strict time I always kept, was permitted to play the kettledrum in the symphony. It was not until later that I perceived how ridiculous and extravagant these concerts were. My teacher generally played two concertos on the piano by Wolff or Emanuel Bach,[3] a member of the town band struggled with Stamitz,[4] while the ...

— Weird Tales. Vol. I • E. T. A. Hoffmann

... answered, according to the old hag's bidding, "I want your skin, for King Indra is making a new kettledrum, and says your skin ...

— Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories - The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1 • Various

... feel that her impatience had misled her, and that she would have been better off with the aunt who was used to such places, and whose trim browns and crimsons were always appropriate everywhere, rather than this dainty figure in delicate hues that looked only fit for the Esplanade or the kettledrum, and who was becoming seriously uneasy, as Kunz, in his fresh snowiness, was disposed to make researches among vulgar remains of crabs and hakes, and was with difficulty restrained from disputing them with a very ignoble and spiteful ...

— Beechcroft at Rockstone • Charlotte M. Yonge

... mountain with the Immortals and tell this Ephialtes there await him ten talents and a girdle of honour if the thing goes well; if ill, let him be flayed alive and his skin be made the head of a kettledrum." ...

— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

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