1 a musical instrument made of a hollow round frame with plastic or skin stretched tightly across one or both ends. You play it by hitting it with sticks or with your hands:
a bass drum * Tony Cox on drums * to play the drums * a regular drum beat * There was a great crash and then a long roll of drums.
2 a large container for oil or chemicals, shaped like a CYLINDER:
a 50 gallon drum * an oil drum
3 a thing shaped like a drum, especially part of a machine:
The mixture flows to a revolving drum where the water is filtered out.
IDIOMS
beat / bang the drum (for sb/sth) (especially BrE) to speak with enthusiasm in support of sb/sth:
She's really banging the drum for the new system.
verb (-mm-)
1 [V] to play a drum
2 ~ (sth) on sth to make a sound by hitting a surface again and again:
[VN] Impatiently, he drummed his fingers on the table. [also V]
IDIOMS
drum sth into sb's head = DRUMSTHINTOSB
PHRASALVERBS
drum sth into sb to make sb remember sth by repeating it a lot of times:
We had it drummed into us that we should never talk to strangers.
drum sb out (of sth) [usuallypassive] to force sb to leave an organization as a punishment for doing sth wrong:
He was drummed out of the army.
drum sth<->up to try hard to get support or business:
He had flown to the north of the country to drum up support for the campaign.
