ETYM Cf. Dutch trom, trommel, LG. trumme, German trommel, Dan. tromme, Swed. trumma, Old High Germ. trumba a trumpet, Icel. pruma a clap of thunder, and as a verb, to thunder, Dan. drum a booming sound, drumme to boom.
1. A cylindrical metal container used for shipping or storage of liquids; SYN. metal drum.
2. A musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a hollow cylinder with a membrane stretch across each end; SYN. membranophone, tympan.
3. Small to medium-sized bottom-dwelling food and game fishes of shallow coastal and fresh waters that make a drumming noise; SYN. drumfish.
4. The sound of a drum.
Any of a class of percussion instruments including slit drums made of wood, steel drums fabricated from oil drums, and a majority group of skin drums consisting of a shell or vessel of wood, metal, or earthenware across one or both ends of which is stretched a membrane of hide or plastic.
Drums are struck with the hands or with a stick or pair of sticks; they are among the oldest instruments known. Most drums are of indeterminate low or high pitch and function as rhythm instruments. The exceptions are steel drums, orchestral timpani (kettledrums), and Indian tabla which are tuned to precise pitches. Double-ended African kalungu (“talking drums”) can be varied in pitch by the player squeezing on the tension cords. Frame drums including the Irish bodhrán and Basque tambour are smaller and lighter in tone and may incorporate jingles or rattles. Orchestral drums consist of timpani, tambourine, snare, side, and bass drums, the latter either single-headed (with a single skin) and producing a ringing tone, called a gong drum, or double-headed (with two skins) and producing a dense booming noise of indeterminate pitch. Military bands of foot soldiers employ the snare and side drums, and among cavalry regiments a pair of kettledrums mounted on horseback are played on ceremonial occasions.
Dance band drums have evolved from the “traps” of Dixieland jazz into a battery of percussion employing a range of stick types. In addition to snare and foot-controlled bass drums, many feature a scale of pitched bongos and tom-toms, as well as suspended cymbals, hi-hat (foot-controlled double cymbals), cowbells, and temple blocks. Recent innovations include the rotary tunable rototoms, electronic drums, and the drum machine, a percussion synthesizer.

A rotating cylinder used with some printers and plotters and (in the early days of mainframe computing) as a magnetic storage medium for data. In laser printers, a rotating drum is coated with a photoelectric material that retains a charge when struck by a laser beam. The electrically charged spots on the drum then attract toner particles that the drum transfers to the paper as the paper passes by.

1. To make a rhythmic sound; SYN. beat, thrum.
2. To play the drums.