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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

... into it, provided we be not now too hide-bound: for that's the trouble—that our thoughts grow to revolve in stodgy grooves of use-and-wont, and shun to soar beyond. Look at our Parliament—a hurdy-gurdy turning out, age after age, a sing-song of pigmy regulations, accompanied for grum kettledrum by a musketry of suicides, and for pibroch by a European bleating of little children. We are still a million miles from civilization! For what is a civilized society? It can only be one in which the people are proud and happy! The people of Africa are happy, not proud; not civilized; the people ...

— The Lord of the Sea • M. P. Shiel

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