0 a musical instrument, especially one made from a skin stretched over the end of a hollow tube or bowl, played by hitting with the hand or a stick: --
1 a large tube-like container: --
a drum of radioactive waste
a five-gallon plastic drum
an oil drum
2 to hit a surface regularly and make a sound like a drum, or to make something do this: --
3 a musical instrument, usually with a skin stretched over the end of a hollow tube or bowl, played by hitting with the hand or a stick --
4 a large, cylindrical container usually used for storing liquids: --
an oil drum
5 to make a rhythmic sound by hitting repeatedly: --
While the technologies of instrument construction and recording have become more sophisticated, for some musicians and listeners, today's drums don't sound better.
The drums are enough to tell you what kind of song it is - dance music - but they're not sufficient to constitute the whole song.
Grounding the surface noise are some loops of processed drums.
The snare drum's melodic character derives in part from the range of timbres the drummer gets out of it.
There are around a dozen heraldic flourishes involving trumpets, drums and ordnance.
The drums are normally referred to in songs as 'pans' and 'tin cans', of which the principle characteristic is the volume of sound produced.
No one today exactly remembered the gongs and drums.
At this time traps, designed for speed and ease of collecting termites, were placed on top of drums and milk-cartons.