释义 |
▪ I. kettledrum, n.|ˈkɛt(ə)lˌdrʌm| 1. A musical instrument of percussion consisting of a hollow hemisphere of brass or copper, over the edge of which parchment is stretched and tuned to a definite note: cf. drum n.1 1.
[1554Machyn Diary (Camden) 76 Thrumpets..and drumes mad of ketylles.] 1602Shakes. Ham. i. iv. 11 The kettle Drum and Trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his Pledge. 1730Fielding Tom Thumb ii. iv, A noise, Great as the kettledrums of twenty armies. 1844Regul. & Ord. Army 30 No Trumpet to sound, or Kettle-Drum to beat. attrib.1874T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd I. 68 His head being dandled up and down on the bed of the waggon like a kettledrum-stick. 1898Westm. Gaz. 6 Sept. 4/3 The kettledrum boy plays his incessant pom-pom-pom. †2. = kettledrummer. Obs.
1542Sir T. Seymour Let. to Hen. VIII, in St. Papers IX. 501 The captaynes that your Heynes wolde retayne, the dromes and fyffes, the ketyl dromes. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 239 b, Trompettes..twelve in nombre besyde two kettle Drommes on horsebacke. 1669Lond. Gaz. No. 4012/3, 6. Trumpets and 2. Kettle-Drums in rich Liveries. 1705Vanbrugh Confed. i. ii, The rogue had a kettledrum to his father. 1755Mem. Capt. P. Drake I. xv. 143 One Morgrigg, a Kettle Drum to the Queen's Life-guard. 3. colloq. An afternoon tea-party on a large scale. A punning term, implying that the gathering was a smaller affair than the usual ‘drum’ (see drum n.1 10) and associating it with the tea-kettle.
1861Times 1 July 12 Then the 5 o'clock tea, the sort of little assembly so happily called ‘kettledrum’. 1888Lady 25 Oct. 374/1 We ask them to afternoon tea, or have kettle⁓drums at Le Repos. ▪ II. ˈkettledrum, v. [f. prec. n.] intr. To beat the kettledrum; to make a noise like a kettledrum. Hence ˈkettleˌdrumming vbl. n.
1848B. Webb Continental Ecclesiol. 277 There was a great deal too much trumpeting and kettle-drumming in the orchestra. 1893Crockett Stickit Minister 175 He heard..his own heart kettle-drumming in his ears. |